The Worry Thirty

This exercise if for anxious people who find themselves worrying about things to the detriment of quality of life, concentration on their work, and/or getting to sleep at night.

Rather than thinking about everything you need to worry about throughout the day and into the night, choose a thirty-minute time period that is not directly before bedtime, and sit down to get your worrying out of the way for the next 24 hours. Now is your chance to worry thoroughly and completely about every anxiety, concern, and fear that you face. The first step is to make a list identifying each of your worries. Take a sheet of paper and write as follows:

1.
2.
3.
...etc. up to thirty worries.

Once your list is absolutely complete (make sure not to leave anything out), review each worry. Consider every possible consequence of what you're worried about--including the dire, extreme, and catastrophic. Worry hard. That is what you are doing right now. Then when your thirty minutes are up, fold the list and put it away somewhere safe--in your pocket or purse, or at your desk or nightstand. You still have the list, so there's no danger of forgetting anything. But now you're done with worrying for the day, and can go on to living the rest of your life.