The famous New Zealand cricket player, Glenn Turner, once said, “Worry is like a rocking chair—it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.”   I know he’s right, but I still worry.

It’s not a new problem for me.  More than thirty years ago, I read Herbert Benson’s helpful book, The Relaxation Response, but it didn’t cure my worrying. Recently, I found something that seems to help me– deep-breathing-relaxation exercises—that I’d like to share with my fellow worriers.  They come from the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. You can do them anywhere.  Some doctors say that they are as effective as pharmaceutical sleep aids in dealing with insomnia.

Here are two that I have found helpful:

Exercise1: Count very slowly to yourself from 10 down to 0, one number on each outbreath. Breathe in, and on your first outbreath, say "10" to yourself. With the next outbreath, say "9", working your way down to "0." When you get to "0," notice how you feel. 

Exercise 2: As you breathe in, count slowly up to "4;" as you breathe out, count slowly back down to "1." Thus, as you breathe in, you say quietly to yourself, "1.. 2.. 3.. 4,) and as you breathe out, you say quietly to yourself, "4.. 3.. 2.. 1." Do this several times.

You can find more here .