How to stop worrying is a question many seem to ask. Worry can keep you awake at night and can generally remove all joy from life. As you see the pointlessness and illusion of worry, you will realise that how to stop worrying is a process of simply not getting involved or identifying with any worry that arises.
Most of us know that our worrying is unjustified, causes us harm and sometimes seems ridiculous, yet many still seem to suffer from worrying. Once a distinction is made between yourself and the "worry energy", worry will begin to lose its hold over you.
The Awareness Of The Worrier
The distinction that has to be made is between you and "the worrier". You are the simple awareness of "the worrier". If there is worry arising or playing out, you are the space in which it arises, you are the awareness of it, that is all.
The worry becomes infused with power and charged with energy as soon as you identify with it. Notice how feelings or thoughts of worry arise by themselves, and let them be. Notice the space that is around the worry - the infinite nothingness that allows it to be.
Rest your attention on the clear stillness around the feelings of worry. This will take away the power of the worry. You have to completely allow the worry energy to act how it wants, you have no part in it. You dwell as the still, spacious awareness of it.
There is no complaining or resistance on your part, you simply see that it arises in your field of awareness, or space of consciousness.
Worry arises and subsides by itself, so how could it be you? It is an energy that has been mislabelled as "yourself", which is why it may feel strong and full of identity. Silently observe all of this.
Welcome feelings of worry, since they force you into the truth of who you are - pure, peaceful, clear awareness. As you welcome feelings like this without identifying with them, they will be transmuted into greater inner peace and presence.
Notice The Futility
Also notice how futile worrying is. As it acts out by itself, notice that the only purpose it serves is to keep you trapped in a conceptual identity, and trapped in a form of resistance. It is simply a self- preserving mechanism of the ego.
As you notice how futile worrying is, your belief and identification in it is automatically withdrawn. You can break free.
It Is All Just Imagination
Worry is based on imagination and past conditioning. Stop believing in every worried thought that arises - once you take away your belief from these transient and unreal thoughts and emotions, you see that they are just an illusion. What remains is you - pure awareness, beyond any physical or emotional form, infinite and eternal.
Use the awareness of the breath to help you maintain your state of spaciousness and peace. Simply focusing on what your breath is doing will take away a lot of power from your thoughts. The worry may still operate for a while, but if you let go of following or believing in every thought, and just feel the flow of your breath, you will step into freedom.
Leave It Alone
The simple truth is that worrying is nothing to do with you, and is a complete waste of time. If you realise this, even if worry energy passes through you or seems to arise in you, it will mean nothing to you since you will give it no reality. You will be free and undisturbed.
Just because worry energy may arise inside you, this does not mean you have to give it any authority. Remain silent, remain as the nonjudgemental observer.
You don't need to be concerned about how to stop worrying. Don't try to stop, just see that the worrier is not who you are. Only the ego worries.