Right now,
I want to talk about what worry actually is.
Worry isn't a personality trait.
It isn't intelligence.
And it definitely isn't intuition.
Worry is a survival response.
It comes from the part of the brain whose job it is to anticipate danger and to try to keep us safe.
This part scans the future,
Looks for what could go wrong,
And then mentally rehearses it over and over again as a way to feel prepared.
The problem is that the brain doesn't know the difference between an imagined threat and a real one.
So,
When we worry,
The body reacts as if something bad is happening right now.
Stress hormones are released,
Muscles tighten,
Breathing becomes shallow,
Sleep is disrupted,
And thinking becomes narrow.
That's why worry feels so exhausting and why it can make people physically sick.
Most of us learn to worry very early in life,
Especially if we grew up with unpredictability,
Emotional instability,
Or situations where we had to stay alert to feel safe.
In those environments,
Worrying actually made sense.
It was the nervous system trying to stay one step ahead.
Over time,
Though,
Worry can become a reflex instead of a response.
It turns into something that happens automatically whenever uncertainty shows up,
Even when we're no longer in real danger.
And here's the part that many people don't realize.
Worry feels like we're doing something helpful,
But most of the time,
It's just the body stuck in anticipation without resolution.
Once you understand that,
You can begin to see worry not as a flaw,
But as a pattern.
And that's where change becomes possible.
I'm pretty sure I spent most of my 20s stuck in a vicious cycle of worry.
It didn't stay in my head.
It showed up in my body.
I had nausea,
Heart palpitations,
And a constant sense of internal pressure that made the stress of worrying almost unbearable.
At some point,
I could see how much this was affecting my health,
And that awareness created a shift.
I didn't decide to stop worrying.
Instead,
I decided to change how I responded to it.
So every time my mind started to spiral,
I would reassure myself that I could handle anything when it was actually in front of me.
And I didn't say that with frustration.
And also,
I didn't say it with judgment.
I offered it with the same steady reassurance that I would offer a scared child.
At first,
I had to constantly reassure myself,
Maybe 20 or 30 times a day.
Over and over,
I met the worrying thoughts with compassion instead of resistance.
And slowly,
The thoughts began to lose their grip.
Fast forward to a few days ago.
A challenge came up that would have pulled me into hours or even days of worrying in the past.
I actually felt the old reflex start to rise,
And then something else surfaced instead.
I said to myself,
Let's just deal with whatever shows up when it's here.
And then I let it go.
And when the thing I almost worried about actually arrived,
A solution showed up right alongside it.
The situation resolved itself completely.
I honestly laughed out loud,
Realizing how much time and energy I had saved by staying present instead of rehearsing a future that never actually happened.
These days,
Worry barely takes up space in my life.
And if it does appear,
It's usually a single thought,
And then it passes.
So if you struggle with constant worry,
Try this and see if it helps.
Because I promise you,
This is a much healthier and grounded place to live.
