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HOW TO LEAVE YOUR WORRIES BEHIND 42% of American adults say they feel worry every day. Are you one of them? The average amount of time spent worrying 59 minutes The amount of time people say they spend each day feeling under pressure or worried. 1 hr 7 min People over 60 1 hr 30 min Those in their 50s 1 hr 45 min People in their 20s According to a survey of 2,000 adults in the UK Why Worry? Scientists have discovered that worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait. Worrying may have kept our ancestors out of trouble. HOW WORRY CAN HURT YOU It Hurts Your Brain Worry may boost your risk for Alzheimer’s disease. It Hurts Your Heart Anxiety over the long term has been linked to an increased risk for heart attack. It Worsens Your Memory Worry may be interfering with your working memory. It Harms People Close to You Worry can be so intrusive as to ruin a personal relationship. The Cost of Worry Worry has an unseen cost on caregivers, researchers say. It takes time and energy that could be better spent caring for themselves, such as getting proper sleep. HOW TO WORRY LESS Get Good Sleep Don't be a night owl Researchers found that keeping regular sleep hours lessens negative thinking and worry. Do yoga People with anxiety disorders can benefit from regular yoga practice. Increase your mindfulness with meditation Even an online intervention helped reduce worry in users. Pray If you're spiritual, foster a belief in a higher power that has your best interest at heart. Do Women Worry More? Researchers found that in long-term heterosexual relationships, when couples reached a hurdle, they reacted differently: Men tended to get frustrated while women tended to worry. Exercise Helps … Especially for Women Women who exercise may reduce worry and improve their mood more dramatically than men. 5 WAYS TO DECREASE ANXIETY Get enough sleep Take 15 minutes to tidy up your space. Clutter can cause anxious feelings. Express gratitude at least once a day. Lay off the sugar and processed foods. They can make you feel anxious. Schedule quiet time, even if it’s just 5 minutes a day. Tell people you’re unavailable and turn off your phone. Research suggests that noise can make us anxious. WORRY-FREE STRATEGIES Dealing with Daily Worry When worry hits, it can feel inescapable. Try these tricks to get out of the seemingly endless loop of anxious thoughts: Get a Pen Brainstorm solutions to your worries. Research shows this can ease anxiety. Note and Accept When a worry comes to you, label it—say to yourself, “Oh, there’s that troubling thought”—and move on. Make an Appointment Set aside a certain time of day to think over your worries. When worries pop up at other times, jot them down and know you can think about them later. When to Let a Negative Thought In—and When to Let It Go When you have a negative thought, two questions can help you assess whether to consider it or let it go. 1. Is it true? (If not, let it go. No need to go to 2) 2. Is it helpful? For instance, you’re worried about managing the busy week ahead. If thinking about it helps you strategize getting everything done, then think it through. But if it paralyzes you with fear, let it go. How Your Worries Turn Out 91% of what we worry about actually never comes true. The 9% of worries that do come true have outcomes that are better than expected about a third of the time. QUOTE “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow—it only saps today of its joy.” – Leo F. Buscaglia SOURCES Carpenter, D. Negative Thoughts: Friend or Foe? Here’s How to Tell the Difference. Happify.com. Carr, D. et al. (2016) Marital Quality and Negative Experienced Well-Being: An Assessment of Actor and Partner Effects Among Older Married Persons. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. Coplan, J.D. et al. (2012) The Relationship between Intelligence and Anxiety: An Association with Subcortical White Matter Metabolism. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience. Hazlewood, G. (2014) 15 Easy Ways to Beat Anxiety Now. Greatist.com. Johansson, L. et al. (2014) Midlife personality and risk of Alzheimer disease and distress: A 38-year follow-up. Neurology. Jowsey, T. (2016) Worry and time: the unseen costs of informal care. Chronic Illness. LaFreniere, L.S. & Newman, M.G. (2020) Exposing Worry’s Deceit: Percentage of Untrue Worries in Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treatment. Behavior Therapy. McDowell, C.P. et al. (2016) Sex-Related Differences in Mood Responses to Acute Aerobic Exercise. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Morgan, J.R. et al. (2016) A Case Series on the Effects of Kripalu Yoga for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. International Journal of Yoga Therapy. Nota, J.A. & Coles, M.E. (2015) Duration and Timing of Sleep are Associated with Repetitive Negative Thinking. Cognitive Therapy and Research. Przeworski, A. et al. (2011) Interpersonal pathoplasticity in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Querstret, D. et al. (2014) Online mindfulness intervention reduces fatigue, negative work-related worry. British Psychological Society. Rego, S. et al. (2016) Worry Less Report. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Rosander, P. & Bäckström, M. (2012) The unique contribution of learning approaches to academic performance, after controlling for IQ and personality: Are there gender differences? Learning and Individual Differences. Rosander, P. et al. (2015) Personality traits and general intelligence as predictors of academic performance: A structural equation modelling approach. Learning and Individual Differences. Rosmarin, D. et al. (2011) Incorporating spiritual beliefs into a cognitive model of worry. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Sari, B.A. et al. (2016) The effects of active worrying on working memory capacity. Cognition & Emotion. Shen, B. J. et al. (2008) Anxiety Characteristics Independently and Prospectively Predict Myocardial Infarction in Men. Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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