Have you ever noticed what actually goes on in your mind and body when you worry?
Mental images of bad outcomes or past mistakes replay in your head… over and over.
You begin to experience all the strong negative emotions you would experience if the event were actually happening.
And if you allow the process to continue, you work yourself into a state of trance where your mind is completely focused on this imaginary event.
It’s the exact same process used to program your subconscious mind with a goal you want to reach.
So why in the world would you use it to focus on what you don’t want?
It’s a weird habit that stems from the belief that analyzing past mistakes can provide some kind of insight for heading them off.
But the subconscious mind doesn’t work that way.
It’s just a goal-seeking computer. You give it a goal and it works out ways to reach that goal.
Simple as that.
And how do you give it a goal?
- Visualize yourself achieving the goal.
- Work yourself into a state of trance where you experience all the emotions you would if you had already achieved that goal.
So, not only is needlessly worrying about negative events not going to help you avoid them, it’s probably going to ensure that they happen if you stay consistent in your worrying!
Athletic trainers understand this better than most people.
In basketball, for example, you are trained to immediately forget your missed shots and to focus on remembering your good shots so you can replay them in your mind throughout the day.
If you keep replaying the good shots, and feel the excitement of making a great shot several times a day, you’ll quickly program your mind and body to keep making better shots.
But if you worry about missing, and mentally replay your missed shots while feeling bad about missing, you’re just going to strengthen the habit of missing your shots, and your performance will deteriorate.
So get in the habit of paying attention to what you worry about.
Because when you learn to forget your misses and replay your successes, you can worry your way to success by “worrying” only about good things!
And if you’re a chronic worrier who needs a little help letting go of focusing on the negatives, our Eliminate Chronic Worrying session might be just what you need.