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If you wish to stop worrying, you should first realize that it is a mental habit . A habit is any action which has been repeated so often, that you do it involuntarily. To break the mental habit of worrying, you will have to develop new habits which prevent you from worrying. The person will have to make a conscious effort initially, to stop worrying.  Since each person is different, only some of  these new habits may be effective. If a particular method used to stop worrying does not work after a few weeks, a different method may have to be used.

Some of the methods used to stop worrying are:

1. Become conscious of the fact that you are worrying as soon as you start worrying. The earlier you detect  that you are worrying, the faster you are able to take corrective action.

2. Try to analyze the cause of  the worry .  If it is due to a problem or unpleasant situation you have faced in the past,  you should realize that the past cannot be changed.

 If the problem is likely to occur in the future, try to get more factual information about the situation. Evaluate the options available, make a decision and take action accordingly.

3. When you start worrying, make a note of  it in your notebook. At the end of  the day, count the number of  times you worried and observe this trend over a period of  time.

4. Reserve some time of the day as a "worry period" where you only think about all your worries.  If  you start worrying at any other time of the day, postpone the worrying to the "worry period".  However, the worry period should not be too close to bed time, since this could affect your sleep.

5. Since worrying causes stress, which affects the body, relaxation techniques may help. Some simple and effective relaxation techniques are deep breathing and meditation.

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