January 26, 2000

FAMILY MATTERS:
Take action against tendency to worry
___It's only a few weeks past my New Year's resolution to stop worrying, and I have "fallen off the wagon." How can I change the way I am?


___Management will involve some changes but won't ask you to stop being who you are.

MARY STEDHAM Family Counselor Abilene

___You, put together as you are genetically, cannot just think your anxiety away. What, then, can be done? Follow these three steps and see what happens:
___ Stop. Stop doing what hasn't worked all these years. Stop berating yourself. That is like asking a dieting person to not think about their favorite, now-forbidden foods. It compounds the tendency.
___Rather, when you find your mind moving into its worry mode, immediately direct physical energy to some other activity. Something as simple as waving your arms in the air will help to interrupt the process that is in motion. If that sounds too conspicuous to you, get up and walk around the room, the house or the block. Just do something to counter the thought process.
___ Look. Explore new alternatives. Talk to your physician about anti-anxiety medication. We are blessed with medications and resources that never existed for our worried ancestors. We would be remiss in our stewardship to ignore the benefits they make available. To refuse the assistance such advances offer is akin to being too proud to wear corrective lenses, generally known as "glasses." That is too proud.
___ Listen. God's helpful voice can displace your frightened, worried thoughts. Create an opening for new messages. Get a journal and write down your fears and feelings. It's like emptying the trash! Things just look better and feel more inviting after the garbage is gone.
___Then, before such wasteful thinking can reaccumulate, invite other input. Talk with someone who is more rational and logical. Hear how absurd some of your thinking has been. Read your Bible and other sources that offer hope and encouragement. Listen to energizing music. Listen to something new and fresh.
___In short, claim the space made available for higher purposes. Fill the opening with positives, just as the Apostle Paul encouraged the Philippians to do when he addressed their tendency toward worry. "Fix your minds on whatever is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and praiseworthy" (Philippians 4:8).
___Stop. Look up and listen-up.

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