Do you constantly find yourself worrying over even the smallest of things? If so, you could be subconsciously increasing your anxiety and stress levels.
Worrying doesn’t achieve anything, so why is it so hard to stop? The good news is that it is possible to reduce your worries by learning more about them. This can be done with a journal.
Here, we’ll look at how to journal to tune into your worries and in turn, reduce them.
Face up to your worries
If you really want to combat your worries, you’re going to need to face them head on. It’s tempting to bury your head in the sand and try and push your worries to the back of your mind. However, if you do this your worries will only fester and grow.
By writing down your worries in a journal, it gives you the opportunity to face them. You can determine the cause of the worry and identify potential solutions. You’ll also often find that once you’ve written your worries down and analyzed them, they don’t seem as big or as powerful.
Create to-do lists
If your worries focus around having too much to do, creating to-do lists can be a huge help. Every night write down the main things you need to get done the day after.
As you work through the list, ticking things off, it can really ease your worry. You’ll also feel a sense of accomplishment as you work your way through the list. Suddenly things don’t seem so overwhelming. Let’s plan your best life! I’m here to help!
It can also help you to sleep better if you create a to-do list before bed. It frees up some of the worry, making you feel a lot more in control of the things that need to be done. You can find some in my Printables Hub. If you don’t see the one you want, please keep checking back as I am constantly uploading new ones.
Start with your most pressing worries
When you’re writing about your worries, it’s a good idea to start with the most pressing ones. You’ll often find that once you start to worry about something, other smaller worries can start taking over too. Worry generates more worry, resulting in a vicious cycle. However, by focusing on your more pressing worries first, it’s going to help you better deal with the smaller ones in time.
You’ll also see the most relief if you start journaling your most pressing concerns. These are the ones which keep you up at night and need to be addressed quickly.
Tackling one worry at a time also helps you to feel more in control. When you’re trying to focus on dealing with more than one thing at a time, it can quickly become overwhelming.
Analyze your worries
We’ve talked about the importance of not just listing your worries but analyzing them. While listing the worries you have can help to reduce them instantly, you’ll gain the most benefits by actually evaluating them.
Go through the worries and ask yourself why the worry is there and what you could do to lessen it. Often, the reason we worry so much is because we’re focused on what could happen. So, challenge your thinking and ask, “what is the worst that could happen”. Then, go through how likely it is that the worst will actually occur.
The majority of the time, you’ll find the things you worry about often resolve themselves. They aren’t as bad as we perceive them to be. So, by questioning and analyzing your worries, you’ll be taking away their power and seeing for them for what they really are, rather than what they could be.
These are some of the best ways to journal in order to tune into your worries. By facing them head on and gaining a better understanding of them, it can really help to reduce the worry and help you live a happier, less stressful life. You will find some worry trackers in the printables hub, as well, such as a few pages of this one.
Please check out the free ones here!
If you would like my 20 page workbook, I do have it on sale here. It’s currently on a pre-sale right now! Get it while it’s on sale!
