Hi all,

Basically, I’m looking for suggestions on how to deal with what I think would be called “mild anxiety”.

There are a few things on my mind and they probably will be for the foreseeable future. The major one being work (self employed).

I know the saying “Don’t worry about things you can’t change”… but I am finding that work is often all I think about. I know it is affecting my mood at times but the worst bit is it is distracting me from my two young children. Its also the last thing I think about at night and first thing in the morning.

Basically it’s just that every time i have a quiet moment my mind wanders back to the worrying type thoughts.

How do others handle that type of worry?
Any good (easy reading) books on the subject, maybe?

I know you’re probably thinking WTF am I not just out riding as that is a great relaxation (and this is a myb forum!) however I badly broke my ankle a few months back and wont be back on the bike for a couple more months. I do miss my weekly “reset ride”!

In the interest of balance I must say I have a hell of a lot to be grateful for though – lovely healthy kids, great wife, food on the table, great friends, etc.

Just want to get rid of these these thoughts that occupy my mind so much!!

Thanks!

I’ve been a bad worryer over the years, read power of now by ekhart tolle which helped a bit, I also recently did a course about people skills and the general process was to fix a problem you have 3 options
change the situation
change the other person
change yourself
answer most of the time is change yourself by changing the way you feel about it

oh and I start to have a wobbly if I don’t get out on my bike or something similar

Have you considered tai-chi?

To me that sounds like the sort of thing CBT ( cognitive behaviour therapy) would be good for – trains your mind in thinking in different patterns. See your GP and ask for a refferal

Diet, exercise, meditation. DBT / Mindfulness

Like you I’m a perennial worrier, I’ve worried about something or other all my life. I find the best way to deal with worry is to confront the situation and learn as much as I can about it, because it’s being in a position of ignorance that worries me the most.

Mindfulness would do the world of good I think. There are various apps you can get that lead you through 5-10 minute meditations.

Epsom salt bath 500gm an a bath. Get it delivered in a 25kg sack works out as £1 a kg

got called away and didn’t get to finish post.. I used o get pretty work stressed and it was affecting my sleep. A bit of mindfulness before bed really stopped that for me. Obv. Everyone is different but even if not stressed/anxious, a bit of reflectiev time is no bad thing.

I find some sort of meditation or breathing routine helpful. “Calm” is a good app IMO

Wow! I didn’t expect such a variety of good suggestions. Thank for the advice everyone 🙂

One other thing I was sugested to do re. work. Before leaving write down a list of open tasks, star the ones you are goin to look at the next day and leave list in work. The idea being, i guess, that you shift everything from mind to paper and leave in work. Didnt work for me but a friend swore by it

Easier said than done sometimes, but being a worrier in the past (and still in the present sometimes), I try and adopt the mantra of…

Do not worry about that which you can do nothing about, as worrying serves no purpose. If you are worrying about something that you can do something about, then stop worrying and do something to change the situation. The feeling of wellbeing when you realise that you’ve sorted it and it ultimately wasn’t that hard is great and makes you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!

One other thing I was sugested to do re. work. Before leaving write down a list of open tasks, star the ones you are goin to look at the next day and leave list in work. The idea being, i guess, that you shift everything from mind to paper and leave in work. Didnt work for me but a friend swore by it

This really works for me, have in the past held my work to-do list in memory, I found writing it down really helped me switch off at the end of the day.

Gives me time in the evenings to worry about all the other **** in my life.

Harder said than done, but the poem I once read was quite though provoking.

“Worrying is like rocking in a chair. It gives you something to do, but gets you no where”

Try reading this book.

Helped me enormously.

https://www.amazon.com/F-k-Ultimate-Spiritual-Way/dp/1401945996

Good thread.

I suffer the same anxiety and found the work list thing useful, start and end of the day (but not everything you need to do just the essentials!).

I did CBT, didn’t like it generally and found it wasn’t for me but I did take away the bits about processing information in a different way. Could be worth a look in your case.

I also read a lot of self help books, Good Psychopath guide to success – Andy Dutton and Andy Mcnab is interesting, Essentialism by Grey Mckeown too.

Good luck!

I’ve spent years feeling the same way. Luckily a gym opened opposite me at work so I can try and get a quick endorphin hit to get me through the day. I was pretty unbearable at home unless I rode or ran first thing. Not a great way to live though, I felt very selfish (father of two) as I was on edge a lot.