Worry is when your mind creates a scenario in your head that is painful or embarrassing to be in. Your brain accepts whatever images you think in your mind as being true, so it believes that scenario is actually happening. Its like you are watching a scary movie over and over - no wonder its so unpleasant.

My example is going to be a simple one; fear of speaking. You have been asked to make a presentation. As soon as you are told you are going to perform a talk into front of a room full of people, your mind conjures up all the bad scenarios that could happen to you; forget what to say, heat up and go red or sweat a bit, shaky hands - all unpleasant things to happen to you in front of such a large audience. If you're wondering why the mind is so nasty to us; remember it's trying to protect us - it doesn't want us to get up in front of all those people. "Follow the crowd" it tells us, "then you won't get hurt. Don't draw attention to yourself." Yeah, thanks for that.

So how to get rid of these vicious images inside of you? Your speech is tomorow, and your very nervous. You keep asking yourself and possibly others, "What if it goes wrong? What if it goes wrong?". Well, good, because this is the first step to eliminating worry. Ask yourself this question: "If the worst possible thing could happen to me, would I be able to cope with that?"

Wow this shifts the focus a bit. Now you have to try and conjure the worst scenario in your head. Hmm, public speaking; what could be the worst scenario? How about I say a joke that is followed by silence, I go extremely red, start sweating, mumble through the rest of my speech and trip over walking off the stage. Would you be able to cope with that? Yes it would be extremely embarrassing, but now look at the positives.

1. You have a hilarious story to tell people

2. You know your next speech can only be better

3. You at least tried; you could have gone through your whole life as a timid mouse and not achieved anything (you would be safe though)

4. At least you failed in something that is only scary because our mind is badly trying to protect us; imagine if you failed to that degree in rock climbing; it would be the equivalent to falling off the rock and taking everyone else down with you to your deaths. Your body is still in perfect condition after the failed speech.

As you reason all of these things to yourself your brain begins to think it has already happened. The worry should at least dissipate a little because the mind now knows that you can only get better than that. Confidence may even set in; "I can definitely do better than that!". It's kind of the equivalent to the person speaking before you failing badly; you know that you can only do better.

Try this for a couple of goes. Read Dale Carnegie's book "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" if you want to hear what I just told you again plus more. However the best method from the book is the technique I just gave you.

Good luck with that next speech.

About the author: Matt reads self development books and translates them into short, easily understood articles. If you want to improve yourself without the hassle of reading large volumes of self development books, swing by http://www.williamsmind.com/blog