We’d all love to live a worry-free life.
However, the reality is that there’s always going to be something to worry about.
Whether it’s small everyday worries or more significant worries such as financial troubles, they can easily build up and become problematic to your health.
However, did you know there’s a great way to control your worries and prevent them from becoming overwhelming?
Keeping a worry journal can have a lot of benefits to your health and wellbeing.
So, what is a worry journal and how does it work?
Below, you’ll discover everything you need to know about worry journals to help you decide whether or not keeping one would be beneficial to you.
What is a worry journal?
A worry journal is pretty much what its name suggests – a place you can write down all of your worries.
But won’t this intensify your worries if you’re spending extra time focusing on them?
While it’s logical to think this would be the case, it can actually help to reduce your worries when used correctly.
When you worry excessively, it often leads to feelings of anxiety, stress and depression.
Often our worries impact our health and wellbeing when they are bottled up inside.
Over time, as our worries build-up, they need to be released.
This often results in burnout, alongside a range of mental and physical issues.
Worry journals can therefore be an excellent tool at helping you to control your worries and preventing long-term issues with your wellbeing.
How does it work?
Worry journals are really easy to start and maintain.
While you can simply use them to jot down any worries that come into your mind, there are ways to get more out of them.
If you truly want your worry journal to work for you, you’re going to want to evaluate and challenge your worries.
Learn more about the most effective method to follow when creating a worry journal below…
Writing your worries down
The first step is to begin by writing down all of the worries you currently have.
When you write down each thing that is worrying you, you’ll automatically find it releases the power they have over you.
You’ll only need to spend a few minutes listing your worries to start to feel the benefits.
Some people find this simple step is enough to reduce their worries.
However, you may find it beneficial to move onto the next step of evaluating them.
Evaluating your worries
Once you have your worries written down, you can start to really evaluate them.
This means asking yourself a few questions to determine why you have these worries and what you’re actually worried will happen.
So, for example, it could be you’re worried you’ll fail school.
Write down why you have this worry and what you think will happen.
Also mark down the emotions you’re feeling because of the perceived problem.
By taking the time to evaluate your worries, you’ll gain a much better understanding of them.
This will in turn help you with the final step of challenging your worries.
Challenging your worries
Once you have a greater understanding of your worries, you can work on reducing them.
With a worry journal, you can challenge your worries by asking yourself a series of questions.
These include:
- Is there any evidence to support my worries?
- What is the worst thing that could happen?
- Could I look at the situation in a different way?
- What evidence do I have that could argue against the worry?
These are just some of the useful questions which can help you to determine whether the worry is necessary.
Often, when it comes to challenging them, we realize our worries aren’t as bad as we perceived them to be.
If you follow the method above, you’ll be surprised by how much better you feel.
A worry journal is a very simple, yet very effective tool for reducing anxiety and preventing excessive worry.
