The Worry Trick: How Your Brain Tricks You into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do About It

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As a chronic worrier, this book was very eye opening. Enjoyed it a lot, it's a fast, easy read, and gives you a lot to think about.

The problem you face is not the problem described in the catastrophe clause of your worry. The problem you face is the discomfort you experience in response to the worrisome thought, and your natural inclination to take that thought seriously and resist it. When you resist the thought with your usual selection of anti-worry responses, this is when you once again experience the difficulty of The harder I try, the worse it gets.”The author offers practical strategies for managing worry and anxiety that are grounded in cognitive-behavioral therapy.

That’s about as easy as being asked not to think about your first childhood pet. Even if you haven’t thought about Flopsy the bunny in decades, I bet he’s at the front of your mind now. Distraction doesn’t work either. If you’re suffering from chronic worry, this may be a pretty stressful experience. Pay attention to how upsetting the worry is at the last repetition compared to the first. You will notice that it gets easier. It’s best if you can do this out loud while watching yourself in front of a mirror. You might feel silly, but seeing and hearing yourself takes it out of your head and lets you get a more realistic perspective. It’s also helpful learning to postpone your worry to a time when it’s less inconvenient. The examples were short but on point and they served the purpose of each chapter, and I really like that because I don't see the point of a book (like self help books) which mostly contains stories and experiences of other persons. If the thought of calling out your worries fills you with, well… worry, keep in mind that we’ve already established that ignoring them doesn’t work.The book is well-researched and provides numerous examples and case studies to illustrate the concepts discussed.

Try this experiment. Write out one of your worries, in its most detailed, terrifying form. Keep it at around 25 words. Set aside 25 of those Tic Tacs that you bought to count your worries. This book taught me that the most important thing to do with worry is to break the cycle. And the best approach to take is a counter-intuitive one, which is why many people continue to struggle with worry. The way to solve it is not how you would think! Carbonell helps the reader learn these less-obvious approaches. We will also do better when we can recognize the worry thoughts as signs of nervousness and anxiety, the same as an eye twitch or sweaty palms, rather than some important message about the future”

How Your Brain Tricks You into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do About It

But if you suffer from excess worry, things look different. You experience doubts about the future as if they were immediate dangers. This book started out slow. I saw myself in many of the examples the author gave of his past clients and their worries. The first half just didn't do it for me. While some of the strategies he listed may help others, I found most of what he was suggesting quite boring, having almost DNF'ed the book. But I pushed through and I was glad I did. By the time I read through the second half I had highlighted and noted so many passages I might as well have just made a huge note of the whole book. I couldn't put it down because everything he said described me so well and all of the suggestions he gave to counter the anxious thoughts and chronic worries I could see myself doing. Once I had finished I felt relieved that someone finally understood some of the toxic thought processes I was trapped in. Your recognition that your worries are exaggerated or unrealistic doesn't help you if you continue to avoid what you fear anyway. If you avoid the object of your worries, you will become more afraid of them. What you do counts for much more than what you think.” By publishing your document, the content will be optimally indexed by Google via AI and sorted into the right category for over 500 million ePaper readers on YUMPU. Ask yourself this: What’s going to happen tomorrow? If it’s a weekday, maybe you’ll wake up at the usual time. Go to work. Traffic could be bad, so you might be a little bit late – Why not? It’s happened before. You could be in a serious car accident. It’s not impossible.

Third and finally, develop a daily habit of mindfulness meditation. This process of passively observing thoughts is quite popular, with plenty of resources to get started. If you’ve never tried it before, here’s your first lesson.The book is brilliant and hugely quotable, not because the quotes are cool but because they are so very relatable. I am a worrier, and I have been for most of my life. As a teenager, my mom always used to tell me 'not to make mountains out of mole hills' because my worries were often over insignificant things.