A huge thing we slowly come to realise is that there are always bigger things to worry about - if anything has to be worried about, some are more worth it than others.
As a so called chronic worrier, there are very few things I don't worry about. So until the day I can learn to stop worrying about things so much, it's really just a case of prioritising worries.
But it's not all some miracle be-all and end-all.
Prioritising worries is one thing, but they'll always crop up now and then. When they do, it's a case of working out how to handle them. And that can be a challenge.
It may be a little more perspective that I've been working with recently, that I think has partly come around through CBT and partly through being fed up of feeling so bloody rubbish all the time.
But a change of thought can makes all the difference. If there's one thing I've found, it's that all these nasty feelings come in cycles: things feed into one another. And sometimes finally seeing a diagram (they seem to like those in CBT) laid out in front of you can be the eureka moment you need to finally start laying those scrambled thoughts into place - or at least just start understanding what's in your head.
Here's an example. Since starting uni, I've put on a fair bit of weight. And sometimes it bothers me, it really does, but now and then I try to rein it in and try to say, 'Is it really that important?'. And if my head says 'Yes, it is', then I'll try my best to take a step back form it. Rather than me thinking 'Bloody hell I'm getting fat' I'll have a good look at the thought, and the actual situation. The thought I come to is something along the lines of: 'You're not fat you fool, you've put a bit of weight on, that's true, but food's making you happy at the moment so be happy. Plus you've finally got boobs. You've always wanted those!'.
Something I've found it that little changes in thought that can change perspective so much, and don't get me wrong, it's horribly hard to do if you're in a bad mindset, but I've found that when I have managed to banish the negative thoughts I've felt so much better for it.
Thoughts have so much power over us, and we have to try our best not to accept them as instant truth. I'd say to anyone to try to slow their thinking down a little, and just take a step back from them. It's far from easy (mine usually feel like water trickling away through my fingers), but when I have managed to catch one, and to cool it down and avoid the ensuing meltdown, it feels wonderful.
Mindfulness is a practice which, in my understanding, really encourages you to slow things down, and just observe things rather than mindlessly consuming things, or letting them consume you. It's something I want to practice and really embrace, so hopefully I'll be keeping track of that here in the future. If anyone's interested in mindfulness, I really can't recommend Headspace enough - the app gives ten free sessions (which I'm currently working through, along with other resources) and seems like a great place to start learning.
