The Winston Churchill Worry Technique
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“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
Winston Churchill
Now this quote from Sir Winston of Churchill is an accurate one, because we all spend way too much time in our own heads.
As far as I can see this applies regardless of age, gender, country of origin, wealth, and any other defining characteristics.
We all have so many worries, so many anxieties and paranoias every day.
This is backed by an article from the National Science Foundation who looked at various studies examining daily human thoughts [1].
It found that on average, people have 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts each day.
Among these thoughts, 80% are negative, and 95% are repetitive, mirroring those from the preceding day.
Two things stand out for me from this (and at this point I have a compulsive need to share Dr. Seuss’s Thing 1 and Thing 2; apologies and thanks for indulging me ):
THING # 1 - That's a lot of thinking!
Even at the low end of 12,000 thoughts, if you’re awake 16 hours a day, it works out about 12.5 thoughts per minute (and who doesn't love a half thought? 🙂)
At the high end it's likely to be 62.5 thoughts per minute.
One thought a second.
Your brain may look something like this:
”Let's eat chips... look a cat... my hair's itchy... how many followers does Dave Grohl have on X... I remember the smell of candy floss... grass is so green... why's it so cold?... “
A never ending stream of thoughts:
Relentless.
All consuming.
Exhausting.
Too much for the brain to cope with.
Thing # 2. Most of this thinking is negative.
As mentioned above 80% of it is negative.
It's a miracle we even get out of bed in the morning.
Now your brain looks more like this:
”I hate chips... I hate cats... my hair's itchy... Dave Grohl sucks... candy floss makes me sick... grass is slimy... why's it so cold?
De-press-ing.
A second study was even more interesting:
Leahy at Cornell University (2005) found 85% of what we worry about NEVER HAPPENS!
And of the other 15% worries that actually happened, 79% of the subjects discovered that either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or that the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning.
The conclusion being that 97% of our worries are BASELESS and result from an unfounded pessimistic perception.
So it's all so pointless.
All so unnecessary.
Yay!
And your results may differ, but all this pointless negativity really starts to part-ay 🎉 in the morning for me.
The whole negative shooting match starts as soon as my eyes open
My brain does this automatic scan for bad stuff...
”Have I got a horrible week meeting today?”
”Are one of the kids in a bad place?”
”Have we got enough to cover the mortgage?”
My head acts like a supermarket scanner gun.
Instead of scanning over barcodes of food it's scanning memories.
But it only processes the bad ones!
Once it's found one or two it really goes to town.
Drilling and drilling.
Magnifying and magnifying.
Twisting that metaphorical knife to the hilt.
”Have we got enough to pay the mortgage?”
”What if we haven't?”
”We'll be in the streets…”
”The kids will get no education, no prospects, be in danger, and the whole family is going to hell in a very hot handcart…”
These thoughts take on a life of their own.
They can spiral and spiral.
They are just not fun at all.
But why do we have them?
Well research outlines that it’s an evolutionary thing. In times gone by we had to be good at noticing danger and negative things - or we'd pretty much end up dead.
Which makes a lot of sense. If you don’t notice the water supply running out, the pack of sabre-toothed tigers happily skipping towards you, or your rival tribe stealing all your food, you’re going to be in trouble.
So negative focus became essential to survive back in more treacherous times.
But this focusing on the bad and negative got passed on through our genes.
Now we live in a world of abundant water (well certainly most first world countries), a dearth of sabre-toothed tigers, and secure and consistent food sources.
Nothing to worry about there.
Instead we worry about other, less essential, stuff.
Our house.
Our finances.
Our jobs.
Our relationships.
Not to say these things aren’t important. But worrying about them to the nth degree night and day, and giving ourselves potential mental and physical ill health as a result, is not ideal.
But what to do; how do we beat tens of thousands of years of survival DNA?
The best way I've found is early morning outdoor exercise.
A workout, swim, run, or vigorous walk all change my mental state.
Take me away from half slumbering negativity to a much better place.
It's like the activity kicks out the negative thoughts to make way for better more positive ones, fueled by the happy exercise endorphins, outdoor light, and feelings of achievement for the day.
And chances are I think it would do the same for you too.
I would also recommend rinse and repeat for lunch and evening too.
If you took yourself out for 3 walks a day of even just 15 minutes a time, it would do you such much good, and improve your mental health no end.
(Hopefully I am preaching to the converted and you do similar already; if not here’s a gentle push).
So give it a try and let me know if it helps.
To busting negative evolution with exercise,
JTD Beach
[1] https://tlexinstitute.com/how-to-effortlessly-have-more-positive-thoughts/
I 💯 agree that body movement early in the day makes all the difference. I do 20min yoga and 30min walk before breakfast most days. (The dog makes sure the walk is every single day, yoga sometimes gets skipped).
This practice keeps thing #1 and thing #2 in more neutral or positive thought.
I think this is why I love my cold plunges so much. It does exactly that!