Are You Too Tense? Make a Worry Jar

If the reason you are tense is because you are worried, here's a tried and true ideas that you may need to revisit if you've tried it before, or test it out for yourself if you never have before.

To make, use, and benefit from a "Worry" Jar "...

Global Warming

1. You need to have a physical worry jar and it can be a large jar, can, box, basket ... whatever.

2. Label it for what it is, i.e. Jar, Worry (Worry, Worry Box).

3. Write down every single thing you are worried about. It can be gigantic events like global warming, economic crashes, raging fires in your community, floods, plagues, locusts ... whatever. Big stuff you are worried about.

You may very well have medium-sized things you are worried about, e.g., whether your child gets into the college she wants,whether your grant proposal that funds a portion of your salary will get funded, whether your spouse will have an affair (you can see that I have not escaped the news lately), if your house will be finished on schedule, etc.

And then there are the smaller items such as a new haircut, turning out right, if you picked out the right card for your mother, whether or not the shoes you just bought are going to match the jacket you hoped that they would that is currently at the cleaners so you can't look at it right now, if you are going to run out of milk before the next time you go to Costco to buy the double gallon pack. etc.

Hey, we all worry about myriad items ...I know.

So just write it ALL down. Any and all things about which you are worrying.

4. Now, put all ifthese individual items in the jar so that they can be there when you need them.

5. Once a week, get out every single one of your little pieces of paper and sort them into 4 piles:

Didn't even happen. Happened and I survived the consequences. Happened and I didn't survive the consequences. Still worried about it.

Put the ones from the last pile back into the jar. Well, I guess if you have something in # 3, then you won't be able to do anything with any of them, right ....

I'm serious ... there are many versions of using to worry jar ... and the idea works. It helps us gain some perspective. If your tension is arising from your worries, try out the worry jar.

Are You Too Tense? Make a Worry Jar