114 Don’t Let A nxiety Run Your Life
period. If you are contending with the pressures and vicissitudes of
work, remind yourself that you can engage with your worries during
your worry period. There’s no need to worry immediately. Mentally
note that you have experienced a worry trig ger by stating to yourself:
I have experienced a distressing thought, but it ’s nothing more than just
that: a thought. I can always return to it during my worry period tonight.
If you practice this often enough, you may no longer feel the
need to address your worries once the worry period arrives. Fur-
thermore, this technique promotes mindfulness, which loosens the
grip of distressing thoughts because you no longer feel as if you have
to identif y with them.
•••
This chapter has hopefully added to your understanding of
anxiety by introducing repetitive negative thinking.
Different response styles, or ways you think about your emo-
tions, will have different effects on the overall expression
and development of your emotions. We illustrated that spe-
cific forms of emotion dysregulation, such as worry, rumina-
tion, and post- event rumination, all share the common
features that make up repetitive negative thinking. Moreover,
we demonstrated how the use of mindfulness provides a way
of engaging with emotions that avoids the pitfalls of repeti-
tive negative thinking. Unlike repetitive negative thinking,
mindfulness encourages a nonreactive, nonjudgmental
approach toward fear and other anxious emotions. Rather
than having your attention be diverted to negative aspects of
the future or past with intrusive worries, mindfulness- based
techniques allow you to enjoy the here and now. Remember,
with enough practice, anyone can benefit from the tech-
niques discussed in this chapter. Using mindfulness to
counteract repetitive negative thinking is an important step
toward mastering your anxiety.