Are you are a worrier - always anxious and fearful about the future? Today's Book-of-the-Day shares a lifetime of work from one of the top scientists in the world.

It talks about fancy concepts like, "Fear memories requiring protein synthesis in the lateral Amygdala for reconsolidation after retrieval."

But guess what?

Scientists have also found 4 old fashioned, practical techniques that you can do today to make you less anxious and fearful.

1. Just take a deep breath: "This folk wisdom has a grain of truth to it. During stress the sympathetic nervous system dominates, overshadowing the parasympathetic system. But when one breathes slowly and deeply, "The vagus nerve, becomes more active and the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic system improves."

2. Focus less on self by meditating: "Our conscious self will do almost anything to maintain the independence, power, control, or success that it has achieved even if you do so other people, other cultures, or the world has to suffer. A healthier approach is to let go of the 'absolute self' that we construct and recognize our broader role in life."

3. Combine self-exposure with proactive avoidance: If you have fear of crowds, "Rather than forcing oneself to ride out anxiety at a dinner party, use anxiety control strategies, such as relaxation and active coping (like trips to the bathroom or stepping out to make a call) that enable regrouping before re-exposure."

4. Hang out with resilient, non-anxious people: "Resilient individual send him a large repertoire of active coping options. We're able to use observation and instruction to explicitly learn to avoid. We create avoidance concepts or schemas, and when in danger we draw upon these stored action plans."

If you are naturally a worrier you can change: "Although some people are by their nature's more anxious than others, ever increasing anxiety doesn't have to be their destiny. Just as the brain can learn to be anxious, it can also learn to not be that way"

Stay Strong
Tai