How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

“You do not get stomach ulcers from what you eat. You get ulcers from what is eating you.”

Plato said that “the greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind; yet the mind and body are one and should not be treated separately!”

Another illuminating book about worry is lion Against Himself, by Dr. Karl Menninger, one of the “Mayo brothers of psychiatry.” Dr. Menninger’s book is a startling revelation of what you do to yourself when you permit destructive emotions to dominate your life. If you want to stop working against yourself, get this book. Read it. Give it to your friends. It costs four dollars—and is one of the best investments you can make in this life. Worry can make even the most stolid person ill.

[someone] retreats into a private dream world of his own making, and this solves his worry problems.

learn to sleep well—
Love good music—see the funny side of life—
And health and happiness will be yours.

Dr. Alexis Carrel said: “Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.”

Worry is like the constant drip, drip, drip of water; and the constant drip, drip, drip of worry often drives men to insanity and suicide.

face the facts! Quit worrying ! And then do something about it!

‘I am not going to worry! I am not going to cry! And if there is anything to mind over matter, I am going to win!

“I am not so foolish as to imagine that merely smiling can cure cancer. But I do believe that a cheerful mental attitude helps the body fight disease.

Part One in a Nutshell Fundamental Facts You Should Know About Warry RULE 1: If you want to avoid worry, do what Sir William Osier did: Live in “day-tight compartments”. Don’t stew about the future. Just live each day until bedtime. RULE 2: The next time Trouble—with a capital T-comes gunning for you and backs you up in a corner, try the magic formula of Willis H. Carrier: Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can’t solve my problem?” Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst if necessary. Then calmly try to improve upon the worst—which you have already mentally agreed to accept. RULE 3: Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health. “Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.”

the three basic steps of problem analysis. The three steps are: Get the facts. Analyse the facts. Arrive at a decision and then act on that decision.

Why is it so important to get the facts? Because unless we have the facts we can’t possibly even attempt to solve our problem intelligently.

“confusion is the chief cause of worry”.

“Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision.

We have to keep our emotions out of our thinking;

1. When trying to get the facts, I pretend that I am collecting this information not for myself, but for some other person. This helps me to take a cold, impartial view of the evidence. This helps me eliminate my emotions. 2. While trying to collect the facts about the problem that is worrying me, I sometimes pretend that I am a lawyer preparing to argue the other side of the issue. In other words, I try to get all the facts against myself—all the facts that are damaging to my wishes, all the facts I don’t like to face. Then I write down both my side of the case and the other side of the case—and I generally find that the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremities.

As Charles Kettering puts it: “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.”

What am I worrying about? What can I do about it?

I found that writing down both the questions and the answers clarifies my thinking