It’s in our very DNA to be on the lookout for danger.  So we have a predisposition to worry.  And we can always find something to worry about!

Much of our stress comes from our experience of the external world.  We worry about the past:  why we did this and they did that?  Yet we cannot change the past.

And the future?  We worry that we won’t get what we want AND that we will get what we don’t want!  We can plan for the future yet cannot act in it until it is Here Now.

From thousands of years it’s in our very DNA to be on the lookout for danger.  A lot of nervous energy goes into all that worry and yet often not a great deal is achieved by it.  Research shows we can have 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day. How many are worry thougths?

It is amazing the way most of the time everything is fine in the present moment.  Yes, there might be problems or challenges, but which ones actually need attention right now???

If there is something that needs immediate attention and feels hard, ask yourself, what is just one small first step I can take about this?  Break it right down into small pieces.  I love that saying “how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.”

Otherwise a way to calm the worrying mind is to bring your attention back to this moment, here and now.  Notice how your body is feeling, take a deep breath or two, have a glass of water.  Look around the space you are in.  Look out the window.    Reassure yourself:  Its ok.  I am ok. I am safe.  I am enough.  I am doing my best.  Focus on what requires your immediate attention.  Right now all I need to do is……….

The way we speak to ourselves can have a huge affect on how we feel.  We can be our harshest critic and experience all the suffering that goes with that.  Or we can be our own best friend, have our back and be the support and kindness that we want to experience.  The choice is ours.  As we keep consciously making that choice our lives can evolve from worrying about “out there” to trusting in ourselves.