The advice that Dale Carnegie has dispersed in his acclaimed book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, are the ones that we have heard before and are well aware off. However, it’s the his style of narrating his expereince which adds to the effect that the book has on its readers. Its his laid back, tell-it-like-it-is style, which makes this book an interesting as well as a must read.

He pairs his teachings with compelling stories about people who’ve taken the worrying to an extreme and who’ve totally turned their lives around by ditching their angst.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living helped me realize that most of my worries are self created! It has made me more self aware of the fact that we are as we think, and that when we start worrying, common sense is often lost!

Here are few of the reflective questions which helped me ponder over the right things and brought my focus back on track. Ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. Do I tend to put off living in the present in order to worry about the future, or to yearn for some ‘magical rose garden over the horizon’?
2. Do I sometimes embitter the present by regretting things that happened in the past—that are over and done with?
3. Do I get up in the morning determined to ‘Seize the day’—to get the utmost out of these twenty-four hours?
4. Can I get more out of life by ‘living in day-tight compartments’?
5. When will I make a promise to myself about getting started with it? Next week? … Tomorrow? … Today?

I will let you dwell more about it and leave this quote from the book which I find more profound every time I revisit it :
“God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can; And the wisdom to know the difference” – Dale Carnegie from How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Within the next few paragraphs I will be writing about the way in which In have managed to turn my life around to become a far more care-free person. I was somebody who used to stress and worry about seemingly everything and was commonly known amongst friends as a stress-head.

I lived life like this for quite a long time and was basically being a fool as I was often depressed. This was due to the fact that I had a stutter and despite attending stammering treatments on a regular basis I was unable to find a solution. Years later I did manage to stop stammering, after a lot of hard work and with the help of a seventy minute self-help DVD.

In my quest to improve my life I started to read literature about stress management, how to eradicate depression as well as how to gain in confidence. I was now twenty-two years of age and had achieved very little in life up to this point. In one of the newspapers I read, there was an article in the letters page which had been sent in by a woman who was in her seventies. It was quite a funny letter and she wrote about how she loved being old. She mentioned that she can now stay in bed all day if she wants to and does not care what people think of her. She no longer attends any type of function or get together unless she really wants to and can quite happily turn down social invites without the slightest feeling of guilt. She wrote that for the first time in her life she does not care at all what people think of her and lives life doing exactly what she wants to do.

I thought about what she had written and realised that I also felt trapped. I did not want to wait until I was in my seventies to be set free, I wanted freedom now. I had to change my attitude to life and I decided to stop trying so hard.

I think I am a decent person, I try to be kind to everyone I meet, I do not cheat and I work very hard to achieve my goals. I actually for the first time in my life, quite like myself, therefore if other people choose not to, that is fine by me.

My new found positive attitude has helped me in many different ways including in my business life where I sell front doors and bargain holiday deals. I am now a fully contented and happy person and it is in part down to reading that old woman’s inspirational letter.

This article looks into the causes of stress and gives free tips to help you control and reduce your worries. I have, as I am sure many people do, stressed for most of my life for many different reasons. Even though I still worry about many things, I have now learned how to handle many of these situations and will write about how I go about doing this, in this article.

I do not work within the stress management industry and am in fact a web promotion expert from the UK. I also work on other projects to do with selling external doors and working with a business cost reduction specialist who offers cheap telephone calls.

I am the kind of person who likes to have a simple and settled life. When something comes along which is quite a big event or a bit out of the ordinary, this is when I start to stress. I am not the kind of person who likes change, therefore things like moving house is something which will cause me a lot of stress. I have actually moved house four times in the last six years, not very clever for someone like me. I am now happy where I live and plan to stay at this abode for a long time.

I am also self-employed. There are many things I love about being self-employed, the fact that I am my own boss, I can choose my own hours, I have no-one to answer or to report to and the all round freedom it gives me. I often stress however that business will go through a bad period and that I do not have the security of a regular income. How will I pay the mortgage? How will I pay my car loan? How will I feed and clothe my children? These are all the things that at times can keep me awake at night.

I now have started to build up a back-up fund in a bank account. When business is doing well, I put as much money as I can into this account, which I can then use in the leaner times. This gives me a peace of mind and therefore I do not have to worry so much. Business will go through good and bad periods and this way I can easily cope when it does go slow.

I used to also worry about how I would pay my tax bill at the end of the year, however I have also started to put money away each month similar to the above example, to pay for it.

I now try and think about all of my worries in a logical manner and instead of losing sleep over them I try to find solutions.

I also feel stressed and I am not sure why it is, the day after I have a night out drinking alcohol. In the morning and nowadays since I am getting older, throughout the day, I often feel lethargic and my mind starts to play tricks on me. It makes me feel negative about the future and makes me worry about a whole host of issues. It now takes me around forty-eight hours to recover from a boozy night out and affects my family and work life. I have now decided that I will go out far less and that when I do, I will limit the amount I drink.

These are other things that can cause me to stress:

When I have worked too hard!

When I have had a lack of sleep

During and after an illness

After an argument with my girlfriend

When I am invited to a social occasion which I do not want to go to, such as a wedding

A visit from my girlfriends family for say a weekend

Going on holiday

Some of the above may seem a bit bizarre to some people who read this article, however I am trying to be truthful. Yes going on holiday does cause me to worry. I have to say that I am a terrible flyer. I am not ready to die and certainly do not want to be invloved in any kind of disaster. Then there is the hotel; what if it is manky? What if it is not clean? I also worry that somebody in my family may become ill during the holiday. What would I do if this happened? In reality I am sure that I would cope but it is just going into the unknown that scares me.

One thing which I am now careful to ensure of, is that I get enough sleep. I must say I love going to bed and I love sleeping. My bed is where I feel safe and comfortable. I used to fall into a trap of working too hard and would then stay up late, possibly watching the television. I would set my alarm to wake me up early and I would then start the whole process over again.

From reading a book about stress management, I discovered that sleep was one of the best forms of stress-relief. I decided to give it a go and I must say it works. I now stay in bed an hour later in the mornings and where possible, I am in bed by 10pm at night.

I am also now attempting to take life in my stride. What happens will happen and I will deal with each challenge on its own merit. I try to deal with potential problems in a positive way and realise that if life was very smooth and easy, that it would probably be quite boring.

I now appreciate what I have in life and instead of looking at the future full of dread, I look forward to what life will bring. I know that at times life will be hard and am determined to get through these periods as quick as I can.

Nowadays when I do feel down and miserable, I tend to spend as much time as possible with my children, as they make me happy and can soon put a smile back onto my face.

This article looks into the causes of stress and gives free tips to help you control and reduce your worries. I have, as I am sure many people do, stressed for most of my life for many different reasons. Even though I still worry about many things, I have now learned how to handle many of these situations and will write about how I go about doing this, in this article.

I do not work within the stress management industry and am in fact a web promotion expert from the UK. I also work on other projects to do with offering stuttering advice and for cost reduction consultants.

I am the kind of person who likes to have a simple and settled life. When something comes along which is quite a big event or a bit out of the ordinary, this is when I start to stress. I am not the kind of person who likes change, therefore things like moving house is something which will cause me a lot of stress. I have actually moved house four times in the last six years, not very clever for someone like me. I am now happy where I live and plan to stay at this abode for a long time.

I am also self-employed. There are many things I love about being self-employed, the fact that I am my own boss, I can choose my own hours, I have no-one to answer or to report to and the all round freedom it gives me. I often stress however that business will go through a bad period and that I do not have the security of a regular income. How will I pay the mortgage? How will I pay my car loan? How will I feed and clothe my children? These are all the things that at times can keep me awake at night.

I now have started to build up a back-up fund in a bank account. At the times when business is booming I am very disciplined at saving a fairly large perentage of the profits. These profits can then be used to help during the not so prosperous periods. This gives me a peace of mind and therefore I do not have to worry so much. Business will go through good and bad periods and this way I can easily cope when it does go slow.

I used to also worry about how I would pay my tax bill at the end of the year, however I have also started to put money away each month similar to the above example, to pay for it.

I now try and think about all of my worries in a logical manner and instead of losing sleep over them I try to find solutions.

I also feel stressed and I am not sure why it is, the day after I have a night out drinking alcohol. In the morning and nowadays since I am getting older, throughout the day, I often feel lethargic and my mind starts to play tricks on me. This makes me wary of what the future might hold and this in turn makes me start to think in a negative manner. I then start to stress about a range of issues. It now takes me around forty-eight hours to recover from a boozy night out and affects my family and work life. I have now decided that I will go out far less and that when I do, I will limit the amount I drink.

These are other things that can cause me to stress:

When I have basically been working too hard!

When I have had a lack of sleep

During and after an illness

After an argument with my girlfriend

When I am invited to a social occasion which I do not want to go to, such as a wedding

A visit from my girlfriends family for say a weekend

Going on holiday

Some of the above may seem a bit bizarre to some people who read this article, however I am trying to be truthful. Yes going on holiday does cause me to worry. I have to say that I am a terrible flyer. I am not ready to die and certainly do not want to be invloved in any kind of disaster. Then there is the hotel; what if it is manky? What if it is not clean? I also worry that somebody in my family may become ill during the holiday. What would I do if this happened? In reality I am sure that I would cope but it is just going into the unknown that scares me.

One thing which I am now careful to ensure of, is that I get enough sleep. I must say I love going to bed and I love sleeping. My bed is where I feel safe and comfortable. I used to fall into a trap of working too hard and would then stay up late, possibly watching the television. I would set my alarm to wake me up early and I would then start the whole process over again.

From reading a book about stress management, I discovered that sleep was one of the best forms of stress-relief. It had to be worth a try and try I most certainly did. I am happy to report that it does work. I now stay in bed an hour later in the mornings and where possible, I am in bed by 10pm at night.

I am also now attempting to take life in my stride. What happens will happen and I will deal with each challenge on its own merit. I try to deal with potential problems in a positive way and realise that if life was very smooth and easy, that it would probably be quite boring.

I am now far more appreciative of the life that I have; I am more than aware of the fact that I am one of the lucky ones. I will be successful and I will make the most of the opportunities that life brings; it is all about having a positive outlook on life. I know that at times life will be hard and am determined to get through these periods as quick as I can.

Nowadays when I do feel down and miserable, I tend to spend as much time as possible with my children, as they make me happy and can soon put a smile back onto my face.

With the way the world is today, it’s vitally necessary that we all learn how to manage worry and uncertainly. Despite misguided opinion to the contrary, worry generally get’s you nowhere.  In fact, worry reduces our ability to function well.

Worry is imagining future unpleasant or unwanted outcomes as if they already happened.  It robs the present moment of its joy.  Done regularly, worrying warps a person’s ability to see reality clearly and robs them of their vitality.

The good news is, the degree to which we spend our time in worrying is largely under our control – although some would have you believe otherwise.

For example, many people attribute their worry to outside events.  They believe that feeling anxious is the best response to a situation.  As a result they have no control over it.

Others believe that worry is necessary and useful.

There are many such fallicies in circulation.

So to begin freeing yourself from destructive anxiety, you need to consider your beliefs concerning the role worry plays in your life.  What do you think it accomplishes?  Do you think it’s a productive use of time?  There has to be some percieved benefit for you to worry.  If you don’t recognize it, it will be harder to let worry go.

As I mentioned, some people harbor the notion that worry is necessary and productive. These people believe that worrying is a sign of maturity and being responsible, or that worrying is a way to figure out an answer to a problem.

Those beliefs are rubbish.

Worrying is actually a poor use of time.  Instead of helping you find a solution, it keeps you focused on the problem, not it’s solution.  The productive thing to do is to spend only enough time on what the problem is and what might go wrong as it takes to identify the issues, then focus on working on the solution.

Some people worry because they think that it’s somehow protective.  Bad things won’t happen if they worry about them.

That feeling sounds a lot like superstition.  All worry does is keep you from enjoying the present moment. When someone worries, their mind is filled with bad possble outcomes that most likely will never happen.

The more you examine your beliefs about worry youll likely realize that it’s hurting rather than helping you.  It’s my belief that we’d all be less stressed if we spent less time worrying and more time imagining a brighter future.

Here’s a site that will help you start to Free Yourself From Worry immediately.  Click on that link and you’ll get information you can apply today to start to get worry under control

And actually, you may want to check out the home page on that site.  It has a bunch of information on health and wellness, stress management and just living well in general.  Here’s the address:

http://www.jfmccaffreymd.com/