"Worrying is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."
Worry. We all do it to a certain degree, but what is it anyway? Wikipedia defines like this:
"Give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles."
It's really just a form of anxiety, which when left unchecked becomes stress. But stress, the father of both worry and anxiety, doesn't exist in the physical world. If I ask you to go out and get me a bucket of stress, what would you come back with? Now, you may stress out that you couldn't find any stress, but stress is not a physical thing so that means it must be a mental image of something.
OK, so now we're getting somewhere. Our minds spend most of their time trying to protect us from harm, that's it's number one priority. So when we don't suffer from physical danger (thankfully today most of us don't on a regular basis) the mind needs to make some of the far lesser things more important and "seem" like danger. In strides worry, followed by anxiety, and then finally stress.
So what can we do? Worry really starts when we feel that we no longer have control over the outcome of something so since control is at the root of worry, I try to follow this simple plan that usually stems the tide of excessive worry:
I ask myself the following question, "Do I have control over the situation that has arisen?" If the answer is "yes", then there is no need to worry because I have control and can directly affect the outcome.
If the answer is "no," I do not have control, then again there is no need to worry because I have no control over the situation. In both cases worry is useless and can do nothing to solve your problem let alone the problems of others. Now, if I could solve my own or others problems just by worrying, I'd be worrying all the time! But it can't, so it makes no sense for me to worry.
When we allow our minds to be taken over with worry it comes up with all kinds of scenarios, and almost all of them aren't even plausible. Things are very rarely as bad as they seem or that we make them out to be, so all that worry has gotten you no where, just like you were sitting in a rocking chair.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you, sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!