“Let’s face it -- life today is unpredictable, unstable and downright nerve-racking,” says International Worry Expert Ocean Palmer. “Just keeping up with current news can be exhausting. With everything from massive layoffs to the swine flu epidemic -- not to mention the emotional battle for sanity with regard to relationships, kids and work -- worries can become totally overwhelming.”

Why we worry, what we worry about and how we manage our Worry Circle (the imaginary bubble where we carry our worries, fears and concerns) is the focus of Palmer’s new book, MANAGING THE WORRY CIRCLE: How to Improve Your Life by Worrying Less. He explains that our upbringing, core beliefs and significant life experiences all contribute to how immersed we get in our worries. He describes three kinds of worry:

Things We Can Control:

Training our minds to worry only about things we can control is the crux of effective Worry Circle management and a position of strength.

Things We Can Influence (but not control):

A worry that we can influence features some portion that we can control, but not entirely solve. We can be nice to others, but not control what they think of us. For example, parenting falls heavily into the influence category.

Things We Cannot Influence or Control:

When we worry about things beyond our control we tend to dwell on them to the extreme. Our minds rocket to the worst scenarios imaginable: The job market’s horrible. Nobody’s hiring. The house won’t sell, the market’s too bad. We’re trapped, doomed and we’ll lose all of our possessions. We’ll be homeless. Under this scenario, we trade all logic for uncertainty and panic.

Mark Twain once said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” Ocean Palmer says that we imagine troubles where none exist, and actually have the power to manage what we worry about and turn our emotional vulnerability into a source of positive strength.