The Next Time You’re Stressed, Ask Yourself: So What?

The next time you wake up in the middle of the night, worried and stressed about disappointing others, try this helpful stress-reducing tool:

Ask yourself: So what?”

Example:

So what if so-and-so is disappointed in you because you didn’t do x, y and z. What’s the worst that could happen?

Well, so-and-so may never want anything to do with me again.

Then you ask “so what” again. Repeat it again until you get to the bottom of it.

So what?

So … if that happens, I’ll probably feel like crap and be depressed for a while.

So what?

I guess that after a while, I’ll eventually get over it and move on.

So what?

So you know what? I’m going to be okay. I won’t be stressin’ about this person being disappointed in me 30 years from now.

By the end of this self-interrogation, you realize your problem that you’re worried about really isn’t as worrisome as you initially thought, quelling any tightness in your belly, replacing it instead with ease.