“Don’t Worry Bout a Thing” is a good song to hum to. Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder knew how to perform a positive mantra in a catchy upbeat song.
That’s how you can begin to stay on top of your worry.
…‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright. Baby, don’t wo-rrry… ‘bout a thing.
Worry won’t change a thing.
Imagine if you were learning to surf in the ocean water. All kinds of fears and anxieties could creep up in the back of your mind.
If fears of the water are on your mind’s forefront, you’d probably not surf unless you’re young or a sports extremist and that was your passion.
The fear of drowning, getting bit by a shark (like Pro Surfer Bethany Hamilton), being caught up in a strong riptide, or being swept away by a powerful tsunami wave, could become reality.
I’m sharing this with you because obviously, you’re not in this situation now, since you’re online. But we all have our own dangerous situations.
If they came on suddenly, you would develop worry, that would activate adrenaline rushed anxiety pulsing through your veins, as seconds went by. That could turn into a paralyzing panic daze fast if a big wave or similar formed.
Years ago before I could swim, I experienced my own dicey water situation…
When I was about 9 years old, I fell off a rubber raft in the calm but deep water lake. I didn’t know how to swim yet. And I didn’t have on a life jacket. I ended up at the bottom of the lake consciously panicking in my little body, blowing bubbles. I think my fear created the situation.
Had my sister on the raft not pulled me out, I would probably be a fatal statistic today. Because if you don’t know how to save your own life (and you panic), you’re pretty much doomed.
I survived and at that young age knew I needed to learn to swim for survival.
Then you grow up and your memories are still there.
As an adult, I’m grateful to have been given a second chance.
Change Anxiety and Fear (…Remember, Don’t Worry Bout A Thing)
Fast heartbeats or palpitations, shaky hands, stomach pains, headaches, desire to overeat, or reaching for a comfort addiction can come from a buildup of daily life stressors.
You don’t want to leave your symptoms alone. You want to restore and prevent anxiety on the onset because it can impact your day and like a disease spiraling out of control, it can become a common, larger problem (stress-related, heart attack symptoms, obesity, etc.).
Anxiety is a warning mechanism to help protect you from real-life danger (before you fall in the water as I did).
Face Worry and Anxiety Step-by-Step
If anxiety symptoms occur from triggers like watching the news (or milder modern triggers), you could stop your worry at the gate.
Believe worry won’t save you. Solutions will. And believing the Universe has your best outcome will.
People who don’t know how to swim, have a worrying fear of the water. In their flailing arms and anxious breathing, they sink. But when they’re calm in controlled, shallow water, they can float.
Floating is all you need to stay alive.
If you stay calm, you can think clearly of your best solutions. You can override a muddled, anxious emotional state (that focusing on worry thought creates). Worry slows productivity and stops creativity.
To end worry, refocus your mind and turn away from worried thoughts. Get distracted and calm.
Refocus on happy, joyful thoughts. Think of your forehead as the foreground or front of your mind (as that’s close to proximity where you do most of your clear-headed thinking on a good day). You could touch your forehead and associate that with a pleasant thought, like nature, babies or dogs.
Or you could bring out a scent that reminds you of happy memories like flowers, popcorn, or cotton candy.
You could go deeper with looking at pretty images, or thinking thoughts of people you love, all that you can be grateful for, what you’ve accomplished, and why the world is a better place with you and your higher self in it (it is!)… Say good things about yourself!
By speaking positive thoughts aloud, you’re exchanging alarming thoughts for settling ones, and calming your mind.
When you’re calm, then you’re in a position to erase worried thoughts with a better outcome.
Erase Worry With These (Don’t Worry bout a Thing) Thoughts
Worry lives in the now for future uncertainty.
Believe the best is around the corner.
Think: IF the worst outcome you can think of in your situation, happened… you’d be okay.
That puts your protective mind at temporary ease. When you believe you have a way to protect yourself, Worry is put to ease.
Think: There are other worse situations that you know are happening in and around the world, than the one you’re in. That gives your mind a comparative perspective and belief that, it’s not so bad after all.
If you were stuck at sea without a boat, you could either sink or float/swim. One of the worst outcomes could be death from drowning (that you’re not in).
But right now, you’re actually in a safer environment on dry ground. Reminding yourself of that can calm you when you think of the contrast of an unreal danger situation and the safer one you’re actually in.
Change Your Outlook (and Don’t Worry bout a Thing)
If you have time to worry, you have time to be mindful and daydream. Sit quietly for a few minutes with a few thoughts…
Now for the future: Look up, find and think of a positive outlook or happy dream you aspire to in this life. Breathe intention and hold onto this future desire.
Now for the past: Find happy nostalgic thoughts to flashback to and magnify the things in your past worth celebrating. You could remind yourself of the last good meal you had or the activity you enjoyed. Why is it we hold onto past trauma or negative thoughts, and not what we did this morning or an intention that we could have for the day?
Now for this moment: Lower the bar of expectations (for everything – yourself, your life, your day) and eliminate a list of wants. Let go.
Replace with simple joys, like listening to calming-for-you music, drinking a nice cup of tea, or enjoying a small treat, like Twizzlers (my personal favorite). Use your 5 senses to appreciate the familiar world around you.
Sing a happy song in your head (like “Don’t Worry Bout A Thing”). Then you’re in momentary contentment, joy, and peace, and your body is calm again, despite all the going-on’s around you. Remind and repeat thinking those happier thoughts.
Getting restored in a calm and balanced, happy state, your worry could reappear but you can channel it in a productive way. You can appreciate how far you’ve come from your initial worry, let go and be content with whatever happens, or even victoriously come up with better solutions for your situation. Not all worry is bad (unless you hold onto it).
…Another time, I faced my fear of the open waters, over two decades later after I could’ve drowned in the lake (the story I opened with). This second time I was on a small touring excursion in a fisherman’s boat in the middle of the powerful Pacific Ocean waves.
Anxiety initially started to creep up in me. No life jackets again… my lot in life it seems.
I knew if I fell in the water I’d have to be a super-strong swimmer that I still wasn’t. But, I had learned the life skill to swim and float. Putting my mind to ease with this skill, gave me some level of confidence (and out of the danger zone).
I chose to turn this worry and nervous energy I had into nervous excitement. I appreciated the exotic, natural scenery around me.
It was a teaching moment. One of the best times to learn is when you’re put to the test.
I would use this mindful moment as an opportunity to eliminate my past fears of drowning.
When I did that, I erased the immediate worry and enjoyed myself.
I chose to rewrite my initial scary experience to a fun one, and I would have a great memory and story to tell. That’s what being in the moment can do. BINGO, that was the answer needed.
I share this story because if I can change my worried thought life that can creep up, you can also!
Learning the practice of eliminating incessant worry and preventing anxiety, can help save you (just as learning to swim and not panicking can when you don’t have a life jacket).