High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 594: How to Worry Less

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

Our brains are wired to worry but worrying can kill your joy, take you out of the present and drain your energy. Dr. Cindra shares some keys to overcome your worry including to notice your thoughts and feelings, label them, and carefully observe them. We can also practice accepting uncertainty and work to overcome perfectionistic tendencies.  This Week's Power Phrase: “I reduce my worry to feel more joy and stay in the present.”   Quote of the Week: "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.” - Charles Schultz 

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best, so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. We check in with Cinder Kampoff this morning and we talk a little bit about how to worry less. Cinder, start us off with a quote. And I like this quote by Charles Schultz. He said, don't worry about the world coming to an end because it's already tomorrow in Australia.

Why do we worry? What is the topic about? Why do we worry so much? Well, our brains are actually wired to worry. In fact, research shows that our brains generate lots of different scenarios for possible future events in order to prepare our brains and our bodies to deal with them. And we typically worry about things that we really care about, Lisa, like our family, our work, maybe our friends. But also worry can really kill our joy, take us out of the present moment and become really a self-sabotaging habit that drains our energy. So what would you have us do? What do you encourage us to do when we find ourselves worrying? Well, the first thing that I would encourage you to do is just become aware. Awareness is

the first step at really being able to control your mind. So when you find yourself worrying, you know, that's just a key to notice and allow those thoughts. There's no reason to suppress them. But the key is we can label these thoughts and feelings. So one way to keep our mind in the present, right, and just to think about how worrying is actually future oriented. It means that we worry, when we worry, we focus on things in the future, not in the present. And so one research study found that just by allowing worried thoughts is to be there, observing them really calmly rather than reacting to them can actually reduce the frequency of the worry thought. All right. So what's another strategy that you have people use to reduce worry? I would say another strategy is to practice uncertainty.

So if you worry a lot, you probably don't want uncertainty in your life. You really want things to be certain, right? So most worry is just negative and repetitive thinking that really doesn't allow us to find solutions and think creatively and actually can make us feel worse. So it makes you think of, you know, kind of worst case scenario, more severe negative events. So if you catch yourself wanting certainty, just practice trying to let go of that need. Instead, bring your attention back to the present and remind yourself, you know, you're safe at the moment. Nothing bad is happening right now. And practice uncertainty can really help you. And is there another strategy? I feel like I'm constantly like,

what else? What else? What else? Give me something else. Yeah, well, we need a toolkit for, you know, us to be at our best. So that makes sense. I would say the last strategy is just that research suggests that people who worry a lot can also be perfectionistic, where we're kind of preoccupied with mistakes or feelings that we have to make perfect decisions. Lisa, I think I'm a recovering perfectionist. You know, so it was that way in my life. But if you're a perfectionist, you may feel, you know, just the need to have everything perfect.

So, and that might lead you to feeling like you are exploring kind of negative possibilities about all the situations, right? So you can really think of a solution. So the problem is that thinking about negative possibilities just makes us feel more anxious. And that that leads to that happening, right? So a third strategy is to reduce your worry is to become aware of these tendencies, and work to overcome the fear of perfectionism, and just to work to let them go. I really feel like a lot of our conversations are just like you need to be self aware, you need to be aware of what's going on in yourself. So I like that. And I love the fact that that worry is about

something that's in the future. It's like anxiety lives in the future, right? Exactly. Fear, anxiety, worry, pressure, all of that lives in the future. And just by noticing that our mind is in the future helps us recognize it, right? But we don't throughout our day-to-day and usually don't even recognize what's going on in our own mind. So start paying attention. How do you summarize today for us? I would say our brains are wired to worry, but worry can really kill our joy and take us out of the present and drain your energy. So the key to overcome your worry is first just awareness, noticing your thoughts and feelings, labeling them, carefully observing them.

And we can also practice uncertainty and work to overcome our own perfectionistic tendencies. And what's your power phrase this week? I reduce my worry to feel more joy and stay in the present. Cinder, how do people get in touch with you or follow along with your work? You can head over to Dr. Cinder, so D-R-C-I-N-D-cindra.com, and our coaching and more information about speaking in my books where I do cover this topic in my books, Beyond Grit.

You can find that over there, drsindra.com. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.