Do you worry? About your health, the health of your loved ones, about your future and whether or not you’re doing what you need to secure it? About money or your career or what people think of you? For so many of us, the answer is yes, yes, and yes!

 Why do we worry? There are many reasons. Sometimes we think that by worrying that something bad will happen, we’ll prevent that thing from happening. Sometimes we think that by worrying, we’ll find the answer we need to fix whatever it is we’re worrying about. We sometimes worry as a way to prepare ourselves for when something bad does happen. We think that if it isn’t a surprise, we’ll be better able to deal with it. Or we worry because we think it’s a way to show we care. Or we worry to keep ourselves on our toes, to keep ourselves motivated. We’re always working to either avoid pain or get pleasure, and we often see worry as a pain-avoidance tool, although that’s actually the opposite of what’s true. Worrying doesn’t help us avoid pain. It causes us pain, often physical pain. 

 In fact, worrying raises our cortisol levels, and high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, lead to a variety of health problems including weight gain, increased blood pressure, increased blood sugar, heart disease, suppressed immune system, and many others.

 In addition to raising our cortisol levels, worrying leads to tension in our bodies, and that tension can lead to headaches or other physical symptoms throughout our bodies.

Worrying can also lead to stomach and digestive problems, lower testosterone in men, worsened period or menopausal symptoms in women, and sleeping problems for both. 

So is the worry worth it? Does worrying actually do any good? Of course not! Worrying about bad things happening won’t stop them from happening. And in the meantime, we die a thousand deaths. And worrying as way to fix things or to stay on our toes is also ineffective. Reflecting, thinking, and problem-solving can help us solve problems, and positive reinforcement is much more effective at motivating us than worrying is. But mind-spinning worry just gets up stuck even deeper. And no matter how much we think worrying will prepare us for bad things, in truth, all of the worrying in the world doesn’t stop the bad parts of life from feeling awful. And rather than worry to show we care, how about if we actually do something to help – even if that just means calling the person we care about – instead? 

So how do we stop worrying? Give this episode a listen for a few ideas.

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