When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice, you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
Listen ! All I asked was that you listen, not to talk or do -- just hear me. Advice is cheap; twenty cents will get you both, Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper. And I can do for myself. I am not helpless. Maybe discouraged and falter, but not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy. But when you accept as a simple fact, that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and can get about the business of understanding what's behind this irrational feeling.

And when that's clear, the answers are obvious and I don't need advice. Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what's behind them. Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes, for some people -- because God is mute, and He/She doesn't give advice, or try to fix things.
'They' just listen, and let you work it out for yourself.

So please listen and just hear me. And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn -- I'll listen to you.

There's nothing to fear --- you're as good as the best,
As strong as the mightiest, too.
You can win in every battle or test;
For there's no one just like you.
There's only one you in the world today;
So nobody else, you see,
Can do your work in as fine a way:
You're the only you there'll be !
So face the world, and all life is yours
To conquer and love and live:
And you'll find the happiness that endures
In just the measure you give;
There's nothing too good for you to possess,
Nor heights where you cannot go:
Your power is more than belief or guess ---
It is something you have to know.
There is nothing to fear ---
you can and you will. For you are the invincible you.
Set your foot on the highest hill ---
There's nothing you cannot do.

Watch Your Thoughts - They Become Words.
Watch your Words - They Become Actions.
Watch Your Actions - They Become Habits.
Watch Your Habits - They Become Character.
Watch Your Character - For It Becomes Your Destiny.

There is a cute story told about the Governor of Texas, then Mark White. Governor White and his wife were driving through the open Texas countryside one day, out for a relaxing drive and talk.

The couple happened to be around the area where Mrs. White grew up, and as they pulled into a gas station to fuel up and check out the car, Mark noticed a little nervousness with his wife. He didn't say anything, but when the gas station attendant came out to their car, Mark began to notice what was really going on. Both his wife and the attendant looked surprised to see each other, and they acted with that awkwardness that two people have when they've been close in the past, but weren't anymore.

Governor White pretended not to notice this. They finished at the gas station and continued back down the highway. The car fell silent and neither said a word. For a long time they remained silent, and all the while Mrs. White kept looking out the window, staring off out into the distance. Mark was
considerate and patient with this silence, and he continued to drive in the silence. But after the silence had gone on for almost an hour, he interrupted, trying to break the silence.

"Honey, I couldn't help but notice how you and that gas station attendant looked at each other. You were involved with each other at one point, weren't you," he asked ? "Well, yea," She responded, quitely. "Well, I guess I know how you feel. You were probably thinking about that and needed some space, right," he continued ? "Yea," she said again. "I guess you were probably thinking about how different your two lives had become. I guess you were thinking that if you had married him, then you'd be the wife of a gas station attendant now, instead of my wife. Right," he said ? "Well, No. Actually I was thinking that he'd be the governor now."

40% Of the things I worry about will never happen, for anxiety is the result of a tired mind.
30% Concern old decisions which cannot be altered.
12% center in criticisms, mostly untrue, made by people who feel inferior.
10% is related to my health which worsens while I worry.
8% is legitimate, showing that life does have real problems which may be met head on when I have eliminated senseless worries.