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To worry is to feel anxious about potential problems

• Worry: Feel or cause to feel anxious or troubled about actual or potential problems. Oxford Dictionary
• Worry: To think about problems or unpleasant things that might happen in a way that makes you feel unhappy and frightened. Cambridge Dictionary
• Anxiety,  Fear,  The future,  Incessant thinking,  Negativity,  Pessimism,  Problem solving

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Worry is a fear of something in the future …

• Fear can, though it is not God, create something from nothing. Caspar de Aguilar
• I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance. Seth Goden
• Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due. W. R. Inge
• It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. George MacDonald
• Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen.  Pliny the Younger
• Fear,  The future

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… and suffers from misfortunes before they arrive …

• We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us. John Lancaster Spalding
• Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is to be expecting evil before it comes. Seneca
• He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. Michel de Montaigne
• The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable. Seneca
• There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them. Josh Billings
• How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. Thomas Jefferson

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… often the fear being worse than reality

• Loneliness, insomnia, and change: the fear of these is even worse than the reality. Mignon McLaughlin
• When one has too great a dread of what is impending, one feels some relief when the trouble has come. Joseph Joubert
• It isn’t the things that happen to us, it’s the things we think are going to happen to us that drive us almost crazy. Kathleen Norris
• We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us. John Lancaster Spalding
• Fear,  Reality

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Worrying is a human trait

• We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still. Lewis Thomas
• When I don’t have something to worry about, I worry. Nothing comes so naturally to a human being as anxiety and worry. Brian Richardson
• They need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won’t be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end. Jack Kerouac
• Some men storm imaginary Alps all their lives, and die in the foothills cursing difficulties which do not exist. Edgar Watson Howe
• Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be. John Dryden

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Worry is a misuse of imagination …

• Worry is a misuse of imagination. Dan Zadra
• Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don’t want. Abraham-Hicks
• If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I’d have fewer imaginary ones. Don Herold
• We are often more frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. Seneca
• Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination. Christian Nevell Bovee
• As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men’s minds more seriously than what they see. Julius Caesar
• Some men storm imaginary Alps all their lives, and die in the foothills cursing difficulties which do not exist. Edgar Watson Howe
• Imagination

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… for imaginary fears are exaggerated and unconquerable

• Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. Theodore N. Vail
• Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. Swedish Proverb
• As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men’s minds more seriously than what they see.  Julius Caesar
• If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble. Elbert Hubbard
• Worry is like a microscope. It makes every little misery look huge. We can use a telescope, and see far away into life.  We shall see much, but worry we shall hardly notice.  We shall find it so small. Nicholas Rodney

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Worry is not planning

• Worry is defined as being immobilized in the present as a result of things that are going or not going to happen in the future. You must be careful not to confuse worrying with planning for the future. If you are planning, and the present- moment activity will contribute to a more effective future, then this is not worry. It is worry only when you are in any way immobilized now about a future happening. Wayne Dyer
• Planning

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Worry is not problem solving

• It is often helpful to differentiate worrying from constructive problem solving. Worrying involves repetitive circular thinking, which is associated with anxiety and produces no enactable practical outcomes. Dr Christopher Walsh
• If the problem can be solved, there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good.  Tibetan Saying
• If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying? Shantideva
• Worry a little every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything. Mary Hemingway
• Problem solving

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There is nothing more exhausting and draining than worry …

• We often hear of people breaking down from overwork, but in nine out of ten they are really suffering from worry or anxiety.  John Lubbock
• Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. Arthur Rache
• A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. John Lubbock
• We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies. Etty Hillesum
• Worry

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… for worrying wastes energy

• Worry is just about the worst form of mental activity there is—next to hate, which is deeply self destructive. Worry is pointless. It is wasted mental energy. It also creates bio- chemical reactions which harm the body, producing everything from indigestion to coronary arrest, and a multitude of things in between. Neale Donald Walsch
• Worry is a complete cycle of inefficient thought revolving about a pivot of fear. Corrie Ten Boom
• Fear’s useless. Either something bad happens or it doesn’t: If it doesn’t, you’ve wasted time being afraid, and if it does, you’ve wasted time that you could have spent sharpening your weapons. Sarah Rees Brennan
• Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn’t you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn’t most of them turn out all right after all? Dale Carnegie
• Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear. Corrie Ten Boom
• Worry is just curdled energy! Henie Reisinger
• Energy management

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The truth is that worry doesn’t solve anything

• Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you any where. Zen proverb
• A hundredload of worry will not pay an ounce of debt. George Herbert
• Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose. Eckhart Tople
• Worry is like a rocking chair–it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere. Dorothy Galyean
• Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:27
• Don’t get your knickers in a knot. Nothing is solved and it just makes you walk funny.  Kathryn Carpenter
• It only seems as if you are doing something when you’re worrying. Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Recognize the preposterousness of worry. Ask yourself over and over, ‘Is there anything that will ever change as a result of my worrying about it? Wayne Dyer
• If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system. William James
• Know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.  Mary Schmich
• Worry is rust upon the blade. Henry Ward Hughes
• And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of life? Jesus Christ
• There is always sufficient reason for despair, but there is never sufficient purpose. Robert Brault
• Problem solving

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Worry is to gun the engine of the mind while keeping the foot on the brake

• Worrying is like sitting in your car in your garage with the engine running, thinking about being chased down the road by the bad guys. You will gun your engine as though it were really happening, but all you are really accomplishing is burning gas, filling the air with smoke, and wearing out your engine, all to no purpose. Roger Stephens
• Remember that every time you worry, you put on a mental brake; and in struggling against that resistance, you place strain on your heart and mind. You wouldn’t try to drive off in your car with the brake on, because you know it would severely damage the mechanism. Worry is the brake on the wheels of your efforts; it brings you to a dead stop. Nothing is impossible, unless you think it is. Worry can convince you that it is impossible to do what you want to do. Worrying wastes time and energy. Use your mind instead to try to make some positive effort. … Give your troubles to God. Paramahansa Yogananda

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Worry in the mind is harmful to the body, heart and soul

• Worry drains the mind of its power and, sooner or later, it injures the soul. Robin S. Sharma
• Worry bankrupts the spirit. Terri Guillemets
• It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Henry Ward Beecher
• Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries. Astrid Alauda
• Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed so is the body. Martin Luther
• No good work is ever done while the heart is hot and anxious and fretted. Olive Schreiner
• Worry is an addiction that interferes with compassion. Deng Ming Dao
• Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die. Douglas MacArthur
• Some patients I see are actually draining into their bodies the diseased thoughts of their minds. Zacharty Bercovitz
• You can never worry your way to enlightenment. Terri Guillemets
• Don’t chain your worries to your body. The burden soon becomes heavy and your health will give too much of itself to pick up the extra load. Terri Guillemets
• It is not work that kills us; it is worry. Work is healthy and you can hardly put more upon a person than he or she can bear; but worry is the rust upon the blade. Henry Ward Beecher

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Worry empties today of its strength …

• Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. Leo F. Buscaglia
• Worry pulls tomorrow’s cloud over today’s sunshine.
• Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, only today of its strength. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
• Worry a little every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. Mary Hemingway
• One cannot change the past, but one can ruin the present by worrying over the future.
• Never borrow sorrow from tomorrow. Helen Steiner Rice
• Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength – carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. Corrie ten Boom
• You can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow. Janis Joplin
• This is the sad joke about human beings: We are so busy worrying whether or not we are going to be at peace in the future, we don’t give ourselves the chance to be at peace in the present. Peter Russell
• We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes. Christopher Hitchens

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… and blinds us to the beauty and sunshine of the present

• We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives. Maya Angelou
• If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• I feel sorry for people who think more about a rainy day ahead than sunshine today. Rae Foley
• If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine. Morris West
• Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. Benjamin Franklin
• True happiness is…to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. Seneca
• Beauty,  Live in the present

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Usually the things we worry about never eventualise  …

• If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you. Calvin Coolidge
• People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross.
• Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. Benjamin Franklin
• Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which will never happen. James Russel Lowell
• I have suffered many things in this life, most of which have never happened. G. W Gates
• My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened. Michel de Montaigne
• Why destroy your present happiness with a distant misery which may never come at all? For every substsantial grief has twenty shadows and most of the shadows are of your own making. Sydney Smith
• It is always a kick to think back a year or so and identify the things that were keeping us awake at night. Almost invariably, they have melted into non-significance. Walter M. Bortz II
• I have had a long, long life full of troubles, but there is one curious fact about them—nine- tenths of them never happened. Andrew Carnegie
• Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come. James Russell Lowell
• Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Dale Carnegie
• People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross.
• Worry trades the joy of now for the unlikely catastrophes of later. Tim Fargo

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… although worrying can sometimes be a self-fulfilling prophecy and make matters worse

• The task of worrying is to come up with positive solutions for life’s perils by anticipating dangers before they arise. If we are preoccupied by worries, we have that must less attention to expend on figuring out the answers. Our worries become self- fulfilling prophecies, propelling us toward the very disaster they predict. Daniel Goleman
• Clearly understand, there isn’t any situation that isn’t made worse by worry. Worry never solves anything. Worry never prevents anything. Worry never heals anything. Worry serves only one purpose… it makes matters worse. Bob Procter
• All the problems you face today are going to go away, unless you worry them to stay. Problems like worry. Worry is a magnet for them. If you just “let it be,” the current worrisome condition will not even be part of your life a short time from now. If you worry enough about it, however, you can be sure that it will stick around.  Neale Donald Walsch
• Worrying is praying for what you don’t want. Geraldine Evans
• Worry is a prayer for chaos. Gabrielle Bernstein
• Worry is the interest which we pay on trouble before it comes, and we attract trouble every time we worry about it. Albert E. Cliffe

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Break the chains of worry …

• Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it. Mark Twain
• Now that all your worry has proved such an unlucrative business, why not find a better job? Hafez
• Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all. Ovid
• You will succeed best when you put the restless, anxious side of affairs out of mind, and allow the restful side to live in your thoughts . Margaret Stowe
• Worry is a condition in which the mind spasmodically clutches an idea and won’t let it go. That is the reason you are never successful in telling people to quit worrying. The only way to break the spasm is to insinuate another idea into this spasmodic grip, until the mind lets go of the bad idea and seizes the good idea. Norman Vincent Peale
• The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things. Bertrand Russell

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… and learn to replace worry with inner peace

• The art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of our great men. Captain J.A. Hatfield
• I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal – and soon they’ll forget my number. Edith Armstrong
• That the birds of worry and care fly over you head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent. Chinese Proverb
• Don’t worry. . . . Be happy. Bobby McFerrin
• I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free. Thich Nhat Hanh
• Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. Benjamin Franklin
• Inner peace

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Your health will thank you for it

• If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it. George F. Burns
• Health

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Write down your worries

• Write down your worries. Keep a pad and pencil on you, or type on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. When you experience anxiety, write down your worries. Writing down is harder work than simply thinking them, so your negative thoughts are likely to disappear sooner. Robert Segal
• Writing

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Get perspective by asking if it will matter a year from now

• Ask yourself this question: Will this matter a year from now? Richard Carlson
• Ten years from now you’ll laugh at whatever’s stressing you out today. So why not laugh now?  Tony Robbins
• When you find yourself stressed, ask yourself one question: Will this matter in five years from now? If yes, then do something about the situation. If no, then let it go. Catherine Pulsifer
• If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. Joseph Cossman
• Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn’t you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn’t most of them turn out all right after all? Dale Carnegie
• Get the “big picture” quickly by asking yourself “Okay, will I care about this in a month? In a year?”  If you’re going to freak yourself out, make sure it’s for a good reason.  Stephen Covey
• In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.  Robert Frost
• We rush through our days in such stress and intensity, as if we were here to stay and the serious project of the world depended on us. We worry and grow anxious; we magnify trivia until they become important enough to control our lives. Yet all the time we have forgotten that we are but temporary sojourners on the surface of a strange planet spinning slowly in the infinite night of the cosmos. John O’Donohue
• No human thing is of serious importance. Plato
• Perspective

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Don’t sweat the small stuff

• Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff. Robert Eliot
• Life is too short to be little. Disraeli
• Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember “Life is too short to be little.” Dale Carnegie
• ‘De minimus non curat lex’— the law does not concern itself with trifles. And neither should the worrier—if he wants peace of mind. Dale Carnegie
• Few things matter much; most things do not matter at all. Bishop Leadbeater
• The greatest cause of ulcers is mountain-climbing over molehills. Maxwell Maltz
• If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire- then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Robert Fulghum
• A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety. Bertrand Russell
• If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times. Dean Smith

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Take one day at a time and focus just on the experience of today …

• Shut the iron doors on the past and the future. Live in Day-tight compartments. Dale Carnegie
• We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it. John Newton
• Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, from now until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means. Robert Louis Stevenson
• I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us. Dorothy Day
• Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three – all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. Edward Everett Hale
• There are two days in the week about which and upon which I never worry… Yesterday and Tomorrow. Robert Jones Burdette
• Overcoming fear and worry can be accomplished by living a day at a time or even a moment at a time. Your worries will be cut down to nothing. Robert Anthony
• Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. Carlyle
• Do you tend to put off living in the present in order to worry about the future, or to yearn for some ‘magical rose garden over the horizon? Dale Carnegie
• Never confuse yourself by visions of an entire lifetime at once… remember that it is not the weight of the future or the past that is pressing upon you, but ever that of the present alone. Marcus Aurelius
• The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. Abraham Lincoln
• It isn’t the experience of today that drives men mad. It is the remorse for something that happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Robert Jones Burdette
• The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. Buddha
• Worry is one of those “hamster wheels” of our lives, offering us the opportunity to live through terrible things that never happen. When we stop to catch our breath, we might ask ourselves, “Why pre-worry?” “Why live through something that hasn’t happened and may never happen?”  Do we actually believe that worry practice will make us better prepared?  Remember, everything has a beginning and an ending.  We only need to deal with situations in our lives as they are happening, not before.  Today’s disasters may tomorrow or next week be seen as one of life’s gifts. All we have to do is deal with what is in front of us.  Anne Wilson Schaef
• Embrace the gift of today

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… putting off worrying till tomorrow

• This is the yesterday that will not matter tomorrow. Brilliant Ashleigh
• I won’t worry about anything today. I’ll worry about it tomorrow. Susan Jeffers
• Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.
• The source of anxiety lies in the future. If you can keep the future out of mind, you can forget your worries. Milan Kundera
• Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day. Samuel Butler
• Have no anxiety for the tomorrow. Jesus

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In fact, focus just on this very moment of Now

• How often are you worrying about the present moment? The present moment is usually all right. If you’re worrying, you’re either agonizing over the past which you should have forgotten long ago, or else you’re apprehensive over the future which hasn’t even come yet. We tend to skip over the present moment which is the only moment God gives any of us to live. Peace Pilgrim
• Focus your attention on the Now and tell me what problem you have at this moment. Eckhart Tolle
• When you no longer worry about the future, and no longer have regrets about the past, you exist purely in the moment. If you concentrate on that moment you instinctively know, that as long as you have life you have hope. Enjoy the moment. Breathe easily. Relax. Paul Wilson
• Basically, if the mind stays in the present, it’s impossible to worry. Upon careful consideration, it becomes clear that human beings are capable of worrying only about an event that has already transpired or one that may take place in the future (although the occurrence might have just happened or may be about to happen in the next instant). The present moment contains no time or space for worry.  E. Davey
• Live in the present

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Examine your thinking and challenge it

• Remember that our fearful thoughts are exaggerated and can make the problem worse. A good way to manage your worry is to challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking.  When encountering thoughts that make you fearful or anxious, challenge those thoughts by asking yourself questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense. When overwhelmed with worry, you may encounter a lot of scary thoughts coming at you all at once.  Instead of getting upset, remember that these thoughts are exaggerated and are not based on reality.  From my interviews with various professionals, I’ve learned that usually it is the fear behind the thoughts that gets us worked up.  Ignore the fear behind these thoughts and your worry should decrease.  Stanley Popovich
• Worries cannot be willed away by consciously refusing to acknowledge them–they must be pulled up by the roots and examined in the light, not pushed deeper into the unconscious where they only do darker mischief by disguising themselves in some bizarre manner. Sydney J. Harris

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Let go of your worries go through mindful awareness

• In contrast to traditional techniques of challenging your anxious thoughts or postponing them to a worry period, this strategy is based on observing and then letting them go.    Acknowledge and observe your anxious thoughts and feelings. Don’t try to ignore, fight, or control them like you usually would. Instead, simply observe them as if from an outsider’s perspective, without reacting or judging.  2.  Let your worries go. Notice that when you don’t try to control the anxious thoughts that pop up, they soon pass, like clouds moving across the sky. It’s only when you engage your worries that you get stuck.  3.  Stay focused on the present. Pay attention to the way your body feels, the rhythm of your breathing, your ever- changing emotions, and the thoughts that drift across your mind. If you find yourself getting stuck on a particular thought, bring your attention back to the present moment.  Jeanne Segal
• Awareness,  Mindfulness

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Accept some nerves before big events as normal

• Nerves and butterflies are fine — they’re a physical sign that you’re mentally ready and eager. You have to get the butterflies to fly in formation, that’s the trick. Steve Bull
• Nerves provide me with energy. They work for me. It’s when I don’t have them, when I feel at ease, that I get worried. Mike Nichols

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Set limited time aside for worrying

• Set aside a half hour each day for worrying. During this half hour you can worry about anything you’d like. During the rest of the day, when a worry arises, simply tell it, “I’m sorry, but you’re no longer allowed around at this time. You’ll have to wait until your worry time arrives. At worry time, really get into it. Worry as best you can for a half hour. You can keep a list of worries for your worry time, but forget them during the rest of the day. See if you can live every day practically worry free. Michael Ray
• By all means take thought for the tomorrow, yes, careful thought and planning and preparation. But have no anxiety. Do it consciously in scheduled blocks of time. Dale Carnegie (adapted)
• Give yourself shorter and shorter periods of ‘worry time.’ Wayne Dyer
• 90% of worries will banish by taking these four steps: 1) Writing down precisely what I am worried about. 2) Writing down what I can do about it. 3) Deciding what to do. 4) Starting immediately to carry out that decision. Dale Carnegie
• Set aside “worry time”. There may be an issue that is bothering you and that you need to sit down and think through. Schedule some time in which you’re going to think about the issue and then put it out of your mind until then.   Timothy Sharp
• Learn to divert your attention away from negative thoughts. Postpone them to particular times in the day and set a time- limit.  Elly Prior
• Create an anxiety worry period. Choose one or two 10 minute “worry periods” each day, time you can devote to anxiety. During your worry period, focus only on negative, anxious thoughts without trying to correct them. The rest of the day, however, is to be designated free of anxiety. When anxious thoughts come into your head during the day, write them down and “postpone” them to your worry period. Jeanne Segal

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Focus on more important things

• Life is too short to be little. Petty worry is allowing ourselves to get into a stew about little things and then greatly exaggerating their importance. Instead, devote life to worthwhile actions, postive feelings, great thoughts and enduring affections and projects. Dale Carnegie
• It is utterly impossible for any human mind, no matter how brilliant, to think of more than one thing at any give time. Dale Carnegie
• The remedy for worry is to get completely occupied doing something constructive. James L. Mursell
• Worry ducks when purpose flies overhead. Terri Guillemets
• Life is too short to be little. Disraeli
• Put first things first

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Talk through your worries with someone who you trust

• If you start to feel overwhelmed with anxiety, call a trusted family member or friend. Just talking out loud about your worries can make them seem less threatening. It’s helpful to bounce your worries off someone who can give you a balanced, objective perspective. Jeanne Segal
• Choose your confidantes carefully. Know who to talk to about situations that make you anxious. Some people will help you gain perspective, while others will feed into your worries, doubts, and fears. Jeanne Segal
• Never worry alone. When anxiety grabs my mind, it is self-perpetuating. Worrisome thoughts reproduce faster than rabbits, so one of the most powerful ways to stop the spiral of worry is simply to disclose my worry to a friend… The simple act of reassurance from another human being [becomes] a tool of the Spirit to cast out fear – – because peace and fear are both contagious. John Ortberg Jr.
• Trust,  Friendship,  Vulnerability

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Replace worry with constructive action

• The only real antidote for anger or worry is purposeful action in the direction of your goals. Brian Tracy
• Now what needs to be done? If there ever was a panacea for living optimally and sustaining a high level of happiness, THAT question may just be at the core of it. David K. Reynolds
• As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. Emerson
• When we commit to action, to actually doing something rather than feeling trapped by events, the stress becomes manageable. Greg Anderson
• If something is worrying you, always do something about it. It doesn’t have to be the big thing that will make it disappear. It can be any small thing. But the positive effect it will have on you will be enormous. Steve Chandler
• Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating; your mind will start ticking—and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It’s the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth—and one of the best. Dale Carnegie
• I would list the five things that I was worried about-perhaps they were four projects at work and the fifth was my son’s trouble he was having with a certain teacher. I would then decide to spend five minutes on each problem doing something, anything. By deciding this, I knew I was committing myself to 25 minutes of activity. No more. So it didn’t feel at all overwhelming. Steve Chandler
• Concern should drive us into action, not into a depression. Karen Horney
• By forgetting the past and by throwing myself into other interests, I forget to worry. Jack Dempsey
• Replace worry with action. Don’t worry. Or rather, don’t just worry. Let worry change into action. When you find yourself worrying about something, ask yourself the action question, “What can I do about this right now?” And then do something. Anything. Any small thing. Remember not to ask, “What could I possibly do to make this whole thing go away?” That question does not get you into action at all. Steve Chandler
• Don’t agonize. Organize.
• Worry makes for a hard pillow. When something’s troubling you, before going to sleep, jot down three things you can do the next day to help solve the problem. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy. Salman Rushdie
• You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. Pat Schroeder
• Action

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Focus on sourcing the information you need to make decisions that are worrying you

• Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision. Dean Hawkes
• Decision making

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Instead of worrying, focus on solving the problem

• Problem solving involves evaluating a situation, coming up with concrete steps for dealing with it, and then putting the plan into action. Worrying, on the other hand, rarely leads to solutions. Jeanne Segal
• Don’t fill your time with worry – fix what you can and let the rest take care of itself.
• Worry a little every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything.
• I act where I choose, then allow all to flow.
• Peace of mind is attained not by ignoring problems, but by solving them. Raymond Hull
• Worry is never useful. When we find ourselves worrying, we should either act and not worry, or decide not to act and not worry. Richard Koch
• A very harmonious way to live with an awkward world would be to either try to change what pisses us off, or just accept it as it is. John C. Parkin
• Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you. Oprah Winfrey
• So, I banish about 90 per cent of my worries by taking these four steps: (1) Writing down precisely what I am worried about. (2) Writing down what I can do about it. (3) Deciding what to do. (4) Starting immediately to carry out that decision. Dale Carnegie
• If there’s a remedy where trouble strikes, what reason is there for dejection? And if there’s no help for it, What use is there in being glum? Bodhisattva
• If something is worrying you, always do something about it. It doesn’t have to be the big thing that will make it disappear. It can be any small thing. But the positive effect it will have on you will be enormous. Then do it. Steve Chandler
• There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem. Harold Stephens
• Worrying is useful only if it concerns a topic we can actually do something about, and if it leads to our taking positive action right away. Gay Hendricks
• You can think about your problems or you can worry about them, and there is a vast difference between the two. Worry is thinking that has turned toxic. It is jarring music that goes round and round and never comes to either climax or conclusion.  Thinking works its way through problems to conclusions and decisions; worry leaves you in a state of tensely suspended animation. When you worry, you go over the same ground endlessly and come out the same place you started.  Thinking makes progress from one place to another; worry remains static.  The problem of life is to change worry into thinking and anxiety into creative action. Harold B. Walker
• Problem solving

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If you can’t control the situation, accept it and let it go

• There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. Epictetus
• For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe. Author Unknown
• When we stop fighting the inevitable, we release energy which allows us to create a richer life. Elsie MacCormick
• We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends, and living our lives. Maya Angelou
• It’s no use crying over spilt milk, because all the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it. Somerset Maugham
• Let loose what you can’t control. Serenity will be yours.
• If you can fix the thing that worries you, then fix it, otherwise don’t waste precious time or energy on it. Colleen Grant
• There are two kinds of worries — those you can do something about and those you can’t. Don’t spend any time on the latter. Duke Ellington
• Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Reinhold Niebuhr
• There are only two ways to handle tense situations: you can change them, or you can change the way you look at them. Paul Wilson
• Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot change. Peace Pilgrim
• Acceptance,  Letting go

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Let go of the fear of making mistakes

• The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. Elbert Hubbard
• Mistakes

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Make peace with the worst-case scenario

• What’s the worst that could happen? If you’re afraid of public speaking, imagine yourself on a stage with everyone laughing at you. How do you feel afterward? You’re still alive, aren’t you? Life goes on. Henri Junttila
• You’ve got to find a way of not letting what you fear be so bad. You’ve got to make peace with your worst-case scenario. And when you make peace with your worst case scenario, then you will discover that you can feel better, and then things will start coming back into alignment with you. Abraham-Hicks
• Conjure up your worst-case scenario. It will give you strength.  Danielle LaPorte
• To fear the worst oft cures the worse. William Shakespeare
• Analyze the situation honestly and figure out what is the worst possible thing that could happen. Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst, if necessary. Then calmly try to improve upon the worst, which you have already agreed mentally to accept. Willis H. Carrier
• Dale Carnegie’s magic anti-worry formula: 1. Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can’t solve my problem?”    Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst – if necessary. 3.  Then calmly try to improve upon the worst – which you have already mentally agreed to accept.  4  When we have accepted the worst, we have nothing more to lose. And that automatically means-  we have everything to gain!
• One of the worst features about worrying is that it destroys our ability to concentrate. When we worry, our minds jump here and there and everywhere, and we lose all power of decision.  However, when we force ourselves to face the worst and accept it mentally, we then eliminate all these vague imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we are able to concentrate on our problem.  Willis H. Carrier

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Consciously imagine a happy outcome

• Fear is nothing more than a negative expectation. Think about it, when you’re afraid, what are you imagining? You’re imagining what could go wrong. If you want to get rid of the fear, you’ve got to swap your negative expectation for a positive one. It really is that simple. Brian Johnson
• Whenever fear strikes, flip it over. Instead of thinking of something bad that can happen, think of something positive. What’s a positive outcome to the action you fear? Henri Junttila
• All worry is your imagination. Why not use your imagination to explore happier options? Marta Davidovich Ockuly
• For every negative imagining (worry thought), practice positive pretending (imagining the most wonderful outcome). Marta Davidovich Ockuly
• Imagination

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Focus on doing good deeds for others

• A good deed, “said the prophet Mohammed, “is one that brings a smile of joy to the face of another.” Why will doing a good deed every day produce such astounding efforts on the doer?  Because trying to please others will cause us to stop thinking of ourselves: the very thing that produces worry and fear and melancholia.  Dale Carnegie
• Making a difference

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Feel your emotions

• Worrying helps you avoid unpleasant emotions. Worrying keeps you in your head rather than allowing yourself to feel the underlying emotions. But you can’t worry your emotions away. While you’re worrying, your feelings are temporarily suppressed, but as soon as you stop, the tension and anxiety bounces back. And then, you start worrying about your feelings, “What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t feel this way!” The only way out of this vicious cycle is by learning to embrace your feelings. The truth is that emotions—like life—are messy. They don’t always make sense and they’re not always pleasant. But as long as you can accept your feelings as part of being human, you’ll be able to experience them without becoming overwhelmed and learn how to use them to your advantage.  Jeanne Segal
• Emotions

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Breath

• Anxiety is a deep conscious breath away from dissolving. Mike Dolan
• Breathing

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Catch yourself early and break the cycle

• Notice what’s happening in your head before your thoughts have a chance to build any momentum. The sooner you catch yourself in the act of creating your mental snowball, the easier it is to stop.  Richard Carlson
• Troubles are a lot like people – they grow bigger if you nurse them.
• Mental problems feed upon the attention you give them. The more you worry about them, the stronger they become.  If you ignore them, they lose their power and finally vanish.  Annamalai Swami
• The more we worry–the more we have something to worry about. Tom Seeley

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Distract yourself from your worries

• I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor. H. Lawrence
• Distract, distract, distract. The distracting activity you select must be engrossing enough so that you don’t have the opportunity to lapse back into ruminations.  Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Get up and move around. Do something different that dramatically changes your current physical state. Do 20 jumping-jacks while singing happy birthday. This is a powerful tool to interrupt any thought patterns. Tina Su
• Truly happy people have the capacity to distract and absorb themselves in activities that divert their energies and attention away from dark or anxious ruminations.  Sonja Lyubomirsky
• If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep. Dale Carnegie
• When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books, They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind. Michel Eyquem De Michel de Montaigne

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Get out into nature

• I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief…. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry
• Nature

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Trust and have faith in a greater power

• Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. Corrie Ten Boom
• Cast your cares on God; that anchor holds. Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Do not be afraid of tomorrow; for God is already there.
• Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He’s going to be up all night anyway. Mary C. Crowley
• Every morning I spend fifteen minutes filling my mind full of God; and so there’s no room left for worry thoughts. Howard Chandler Christy
• Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. Henry Ward Beecher
• Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow. Philip Gulley
• Good morning, this is God. I will be handling all of your problems today. I will not need your help, so have a miraculous day. Wayne Dyer
• He who climbs above the cares of this world, and turns his face to his God, has found the sunny side of life. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
• I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about?  Henry Ford
• I close my eyes, then cut an imagery cord that is attaching me to whatever I am worrying about. I then say to myself “OK God, I am doing my best. I’ll let you take over now. Take over God, I trust it is all happening perfectly.” I take a deep breath and feel myself letting go.” Susan Jeffers
• Let God’s promises shine on your problems. Corrie Ten Boom
• My job is to take care of the possible and to trust God with the impossible. Ruth Bell Graham
• Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie ten Boom
• Put your trust in the Lord and go ahead. Worry gets you no place. Roy Acuff
• The more you pray, the less you’ll panic. The more you worship, the less you worry. You’ll feel more patient and less pressured. Rick Warren
• There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever. Mahatma Gandhi
• Worry is spiritual short sight. Its cure is intelligent faith. Paul Brunto
• Worry, is in effect, saying to God I don’t trust you. John Loftness
• You can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list. The longer your list, the smaller your God.
• Trust in God,  Faith,  God

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Believe in the Divine Order of the universe and trust that things will unfold as they’re meant to

• As you begin to live in the present moment, you will experience a subtle but profound change. Worrying about the future will cease. A deep peace will enfold you, a peace that says, ‘All is well. There is nothing to fear.’ Everything is unfolding according to plan and you are being guided each step along the way. Douglas Bloch
• This is the ultimate truth of synchrodestiny—that the sum total of the universe is conspiring to create your personal destiny… We cannot even imagine the complex forces behind every event that occurs in our lives. There’s a conspiracy of coincidences that weave the web of karma or destiny and creates an individual’s personal life. Deepak Chopra
• If you just go with the flow, no matter what weird things happen along the way, you always end up exactly where you belong. Tom Upton
• I trust in the ebb and flow of the universe. I trust that life’s bigger than what I can see. I trust that there is a divine order beyond my control. And I trust that no matter what happens, I will be all right. Oprah Winfrey
• Have faith that things will work out. You might not end up exactly where you intended to go, but eventually you will arrive precisely where you need to be.  Marc and Angel Chernoff
• I let go and trust that all is happening perfectly. Susan Jeffers
• When you let go of everything you think you know and just trust, life has a way of working itself out that’s better than you could ever imagine. Jackson Kiddard
• You may not be able to see what is ahead of you, but all you have to do is trust. There are miracles and magic waiting for you right now.  Joelene Setterfield
• Divine order

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Sonja Lyubomirsky’s strategies for letting go of dark or anxious ruminations

• Truly happy people have the capacity to distract and absorb themselves in activities that divert their energies and attention away from dark or anxious ruminations.
• When a person is distraught or stressed or nervous or insecure, no insight is gained from overthinking. To the contrary, ruminations makes things only worse.
• Distract, distract, distract. The distracting activity you select must be engrossing enough so that you don’t have the opportunity to lapse back into ruminations.
• Say or even shout to yourself, “Stop!” or “No!” when you find yourself resuming overthinking. Use your intellectual powers to think about something else.
• Set aside thirty minutes a day to do nothing but ruminate. Ideally that should be at a time of day when you’re not anxious or sad.
• Talk to a sympathetic and trusted person about your thoughts and troubles.
• Writing out your ruminations can help you organise them, make sense of them, and observe patterns you haven’t perceived before.
• Act to solve the problem. Even if you’re feeling weighed down and indecisive, take a small step now.
• Learn how to meditate. This can help you distance yourself from your worries and ruminations and impart a sense of well being.
• Ask yourself: “Will this matter in a year? Will it matter when you’re on your deathbed?
• Contemplate your problem in the context of space and time. Visualise yourself (and the worries facing you) as a microscopic dot on earth, which is a tiny part of the Milky Way, which makes up an infinitesimal speck of the universe.  Recognise that your problems are trifling.
• Consider what the experience can teach you. Focusing on the lessons you can learn from an ordeal can help soften its blow.

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• Anxiety is the perceived probability of an event occurring multiplied by the perceived cost of the fallout.
• Do your best and don’t worry. Alain Whyte and Steven Morrissey
• Troubles are a lot like people — they grow bigger if you nurse them. Author Unknown
• If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. E. Joseph Cossman
• People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them. George Bernard Shaw
• Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face. Nelson DeMille
• We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it. John Newton
• It is the little bits of things that fret and worry us; we can dodge an elephant but we can’t a fly. Josh Billings
• I refuse to be burdened by vague worries. If something wants to worry me, it will have to make itself clear. Robert Brault
• Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are! Charles Dickens
• Stop telling men not to worry; all thinking men do; and such only are the ones who do the world’s work. Martin H. Fischer
• Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head. Mignon McLaughlin
• They need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won’t be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end. Jack Kerouac

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• Death was walking toward a city one morning and a man asked, “What are you going to do there?”
  “I’m going to take one hundred people,” Death replied.
  “That’s horrible!” the man said.  “That’s the way it is,” Death said.  “Well, we’ll see about that,” said the man as he hurried to warn everyone he could about Death’s plan.  As evening fell, he met Death again.  “You told me you were going to take one hundred people,” the man said.  “Why did one thousand die?”
  “I kept my word,” Death answered.  “I took only one hundred.  Worry took the rest.”

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• Worrying works! 90% of the things I worry about never happen.
• A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband, while a man never worries about the future until he gets a wife. Proverb
• At twenty, we don’t care what the world thinks of us; at thirty, we worry about what it’s thinking of us; at forty, we discover it isn’t thinking about us at all.
• Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.
• Budget: A method of worrying before you spend, instead of afterward.
• Did you lose your hair by worrying? Yes, by worrying about losing my hair.
• Do not try to solve all life’s problems at once – learn to dread each day as it comes. Donald Kaul
• Don’t fight with the pillow, but lay down your head and kick every worriment out of the bed. Edmund Vance Cooke
• Don’t let your worries get the best of you; remember, Moses started out as a basket case.
• Don’t take life too seriously because you’ll never get out of it alive. Elbert Hubbard
• Don’t worry about middle age. You’ll grow out of it. Doris Day
• Don’t worry about old age–it doesn’t last that long.
• Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it. Mark Twain
• Easiest job in the world of course: Australian psychiatrist, “Gday Gday how you doing… no worries… next.” Milton Jones
• Even at times when I don’t care, I know exactly what I would care about if I did. Robert Brault
• Hurry : A visible form of worry   Arnold Glasgow
• I am busy contemplating my future. Don’t worry, this will only take a minute.
• I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. “Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.” E.B. White
• I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol.
• I finally know what distinguishes man from the other beasts: financial worries.  Jules Renard
• I highly recommend worrying. It is much more effective than dieting. William Powell
• I worry about the possible existence of things that would worry me if I knew about them. Ashleigh Brilliant
• I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time. Charles Schulz
• If I knew what I was so anxious about, I wouldn’t be so anxious. Mignon McLaughlin
• If things go wrong, don’t go with them. Roger Babson
• If worrying were an Olympic sport, you’d get the gold for sure. Stephenie Geist
• If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you. Calvin Coolidge
• It worries me I’m getting so absent- minded. I mean, sometimes in the middle of a sentence I…
• Love is telling someone to go to hell and worrying about them getting there safely.
• Middle age is when women stop worrying about becoming pregnant and men start worrying about looking like they are.
• My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened. Michel de Montaigne
• My psychiatrist is great. He lumped all my nagging worries into one big complex
• Neurotic: Someone who worries about things that didn’t happen in the past instead of worrying about things that won’t happen in the future.  Anonymous
• Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Dale Carnegie
• Set aside half an hour every day to do all your worrying; then take a nap during this period.
• Small Town: Where everybody is interested in what the Joneses will name the latest baby, while a big city is where they worry about what the zoo will call the new elephant.
• Some men storm imaginary Alps all their lives, and die in the foothills cursing difficulties which do not exist. Edgar Watson Howe
• The only people who become wealthy by being concerned with the future are insurance companies. Leo Buscaglia
• Try not to worry, as it’s sticky and hard to scrub off. Terri Guillemets
• We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic.  Cullen Hightower
• What did the blanket say to the bed? Don’t worry I’ve got you covered!
• When I really worry about something, I don’t just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I don’t go. I’m too worried to go. I don’t want to interrupt my worrying to go. J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
• When you suffer an attack of nerves you’re being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system? Russell Hoban
• Worry : Interest paid on trouble before it falls due.   (Dean Inge .)
• Worry is like a rocking chair—it gives you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere!
• Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop. Wanda E. Brunstetter
• Worrying works! 90% of the things I worry about never happen.
• You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. Pat Schroeder
• You never have to worry about love at first sight if you steadfastly keep looking at your phone.

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