I signed up to be “coached” by Mel Robbins for 21 days a week ago. It’s really just a series of videos that are delivered to my email every morning, I love it. This morning she was reminding me that worrying is a habit, it’s not something that I have to do it’s something that I’ve gotten in the habit of doing and therefore something that I can get in the habit of not doing. Think about it, how many times a day do you find yourself saying things like “I am never going to get out of debt”, “My child is headed in the wrong direction and there is nothing I can do about it” “I am never going to lose this weight” or “I’m going to be stuck in this dead end job for the rest of my life”. The list can go on and on, we tend to worry about everything and even though our statements to ourselves don’t have the word “worry” in them that’s what they are. What I noticed though in my daily “worries” are common words that are tied to limiting beliefs, ”never”, ”nothing”, “always” etc. These are words that limit our beliefs and therefore limit our actions and our possibilities. Mel came up with a great tool, the 5 Second Rule, it works like this. The moment you find yourself worrying about something count backwards 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Go! According to Mel and researchers, by doing this you activate your pre-frontal cortex and makes you make a conscience effort to change your thinking. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now and I can tell you first hand it works, although I did make a tiny modification that I think works for me. Instead of Go at the end I say 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 God, you got this! This is kind of my way of reminding myself that I’ve let that worry go and that I’ve given it to Him and that He’s got it. He does NOT need my help and by worrying about it that’s what I’m trying to do, I’m basically saying “God you don’t know what you’re doing so I’m going to hang on to this worry/issue until I solve it”. What a joke! I heard a saying once that I love and I’m not exactly sure where it came from but it goes like this “Let go of worrying; worrying is like praying for things you don’t want”. That for me says it all. I want my thoughts to be positive, uplifting and beneficial to me and everyone around me because whether I think about it or not God is listening to every one of my thoughts and I want him to bless me with happiness and fulfillment in my life. So let go of your worries, I know easier said than done, but I promise if you can let go and let God have it you will be much lighter and happier and less stressed than ever before. And I highly recommend checking out Mel Robbins book The 5 Second Rule, (the audio version is greatness) once you buy the book you get the 31 days of mentoring sessions for free. Enjoy and have a blessed day!