A friend recently sent me a series of unrhymed inspirational, motivational verses. One line jumped out at me—it read “Worry is the misuse of my imagination.” How apt! Certainly, there is plenty of worry going on around us these days. Economic meltdowns, rising unemployment, falling house prices, diminished consumer confidence, and an altogether gloomy outlook is a fairly good indicator that lots and LOTS of people are worried. But truly, worry is the misuse of your imagination.

It sounds trite, but if you find yourself worrying, try to distance yourself from the worrisome thought. Describe it as a specific problem, that has a solution you can begin to work towards today. Here’s a process I use with myself and with my clients.

Let’s say someone is worried about losing their job. If I ask them why that worries them, and they say that they’re afraid to lose their income, then the problem they need to find a solution for is that of not having sufficient savings. They need enough savings to meet their cost of living, and meet it for the amount of time that would reasonably allow them to find a new job. So the real problem could be stated like this: “My problem is that I need an emergency fund of XXX so I don’t have to worry about losing my job.” Then the problem becomes “How can I begin generating an emergency fund of XXX?” That immediately focuses the mind on possibilities, solutions, and creativity, rather than staying stuck in the gerbil wheel of worry by generating nightmare scenarios.

Another example would be someone worried about their romantic relationship with their partner. “What if s/he leaves me?” Here, you have a couple of ways you could approach it. If the underlying fear is just of being alone, then the real question would be “what other things can I do in my life now to make myself fulfilled, if this relationship were to end?” If the fear really is about losing someone you love, then a more productive question might be “seeing that I cannot ultimately control whether my beloved loves me or not, in spite of this, what can I do today to make this relationship more fulfilling for my loved one?”

Simple examples, I know, but when people are making themselves and the people around them miserable with their “misused imagination,” it helps to know how to redirect that wonderful, powerful, colorful imagination in a more positive way. Good luck!