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From the archived Rick and Carol EFT podcast series. The series is complete.
Episode #22 – How do I stop worrying?
- Playing the negative What-If Game
- Worry makes you a vibrational match (by the Law of Attraction) for MORE STUFF TO WORRY ABOUT!
- Chemical addiction to worry
- You cannot thrive if worry is your habit
- Using EFT to address your worries and shift to being calm and confident… no matter what!
Companion Guide
Worry can masquerade as responsibility. It says that if you stop rehearsing what could go wrong, you will become careless, miss the danger, or fail the people you love. Yet chronic worry rarely produces the calm attention needed for useful action. It keeps the system braced while the same unsolved possibilities circle again.
The goal is not to deny a real problem. It is to reduce the excess alarm enough to distinguish planning from mental overwork.
This Guide Helps With
- playing the negative “what if” game
- believing worry is required to protect yourself or others
- feeling physically accustomed to vigilance
- soothing alarm while staying present with the facts
- moving from repetitive fear toward clearer action
Worry Is Learned Work
Many of us learned worry from experts. “Watch out.” “What if this goes wrong?” “You need to worry about that.” Over time, scanning becomes automatic. Even a favorable situation can be coated with a new threat.
This is not a character defect. It is a practiced pathway, reinforced by the body’s stress response and by the belief that worrying proves you care. A learned habit can be approached with compassion and retrained gradually.
Separate the Problem From the Worry
Choose one concern and write two columns:
- The facts and actions: what is known, what decision is due, whom to contact, what can be prepared.
- The worry loop: repeated predictions, imagined disasters, demands for certainty, and problems that cannot be solved right now.
The first column deserves attention. The second deserves soothing. Letting your shoulders drop does not erase the facts. It may return energy to the part of you that can respond to them.
Calm May Initially Feel Strange
If vigilance has been your normal state, even five quiet minutes may feel unsafe or empty. When the alarm settles, you may sigh, yawn, or suddenly notice exhaustion. That can be the body recognizing how long it has been working.
Allow rest where possible. Do not turn relaxation into another performance. The shift may first be only one notch—from panic to strong concern, or from strong concern to enough steadiness for the next phone call.
Tapping: Calm and Confident Enough for the Next Step
Side of the Hand: Even though I am worried and I have my reasons, I am open to the possibility that I can be calm and confident enough for the next step.
Even though I am afraid that taking my attention off the worry will make things worse, I can keep the facts without carrying all this alarm.
Even though part of me believes worry proves I care, I am willing to care in a way that supports clearer action.
Top of the Head: I am worried about this.
Eyebrow: You should be worried too.
Side of the Eye: Everybody should be worried about this.
Under the Eye: It is my problem and I have to solve it.
Under the Nose: But I cannot solve all of it right now.
Chin: I have been using worry to stay ready.
Collarbone: It burns me out and clouds my thinking.
Under the Arm: I can acknowledge the concern without feeding the loop.
Top of the Head: What if I let the excess worry soften?
Eyebrow: I might breathe a little easier.
Side of the Eye: I can remain attentive to the facts.
Under the Eye: I can identify one action that is mine.
Under the Nose: I can postpone what cannot be solved tonight.
Chin: Calm does not mean careless.
Collarbone: I am open to useful clarity.
Under the Arm: Surprisingly calm and confident may be possible.
Take a breath. Notice whether you sigh, yawn, soften, or encounter another feared consequence of relaxing. Work with that response rather than forcing calm.
Change the Channel Deliberately
After tapping, choose an activity that gives your attention a different pattern: music, movement, a practical task, contact with a steady person, or a short period in nature. This is not avoidance if you have recorded the real next action and when you will return to it.
Worry loses appeal as the brain repeatedly experiences that soothing does not cause catastrophe. You can care, prepare, and respond without requiring yourself to live inside the emergency before it happens.
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