Does worrying help? Some people say yes, it may help them prepare for something important, or focus the mind in some way. Some people say no, it is not helpful at all. An idea may be to test this out therefore one can either continue being “productive” or alternatively find something more useful.

Before highlighting the technique, it may be of merit to discuss why we worry. Worry is a collection of thoughts that keep entering our mind caused by the primitive system within our brains known as the fight or flight response. As this is a very immediate threat-based system it wants us to focus on these thoughts in a way of “protecting us” but is unable to logically think through whether it is having the desired effect.

I am going to present a behavioural technique below. It is designed to break us free from worry or rumination that can often take up hours of our day. Have a go and feel free to give some feedback on how it worked for you.

2- minute worry rule

1. Set a stopwatch and worry heavily on 1 topic for 2- minutes

Then ask yourself the following questions at the end of the 2 minutes

Questions

1. Have I got any closer to solving a problem?
2. Have I learned anything new about the problem?
3. Do I feel better?

If the answer is yes, then it is obviously helping so continue to repeat the process a second, third and however many times are needed before the answer changes to no.

If the answer is no to those questions- This is not helping. Go and do something and engage with it as much as you can. The most important thing is you change your environment. Examples may be go make a drink, go for a walk, talk to a family member. You may not be able to stop all thoughts about the topic entering your head, but you can demonstrate productive behaviour which we know can help us feel better about our day.