Many people like me know that it can be super easy to start worrying about the little things in life. It can be thinking about tomorrow, where my classes are, what I'm going to wear tomorrow, anything can really send my mind running and it drives me crazy. It makes me lose focus on anything and everything around me. Worrying about problems can create more problems, which they can keep going on and on to create more problems, and I'm sure people can see how this kind of behavior can keep me from everyday life.

Social outings and school are already a difficult thing for me. Don't get me wrong, I do fine spending time with friends and I do great in the classroom, but I always worry. Am I bothering people? Am I boring? Is this paper actually good enough? These questions that run through my head make me try to do my best…but maybe I try to hard. It causes me to focus on things that aren't relevant. A single word in a paper of thousands wouldn't be a big deal to others, and yet it is for me. Or how I want to style my hair into a ridiculous style that I could never do on the first try.

I was never sure what the really big issue was with stressing and worrying until I looked up what the effects could be. I learned that worrying can be a way of wasting your energy and time on things that shouldn't matter…like that one word in the paper. It can cause tension in your body and make your muscles sore. That wasn't a surprise to me since my neck always hurts nowadays. Worrying definitely can keep you up at night, which was also no surprise there. In college, I always asked myself, what was sleep? Unless I had pulled an all-nighter, sleep was never really a friend of mine.

I did too much research on the effects of stress, and what did I do? Stress more.

I always dived head first into thinking the worst possible scenario, but I also really wanted to break that habit. The other night, a bunch of my sorority sisters and I went to the gym to do a class together. I had a blast and found that Zumba is something I want to keep doing, but I also learned something else. Exercising was a wonderful way to help me calm my nerves. I didn't have a worry in the world during my little post-exercise endorphin high, and I certainly felt more relieved. This is something I recommend to my other worriers out there if they're looking for a break from the stress.

It's hard to stop and take a moment to relax or to ignore the whole busy world around me.

Taking a deep breath is a challenge, but I want to get over my worries and worrying to better myself and my health. Will I still worry about roller coasters or heights? Yes, yes I will. Will I still worry about writing and schoolwork and my close friends? No. Well…maybe, yeah, but it's something I have to take charge of and work on if I want to be truly free from my habit.