It’s got to be something – an uneasiness or fear eating away at you. You’ve got to be worried about something. It’s the national sport.
Television and newspaper reporters cheer us on daily. They encourage us to worry about the economy, crime, health care and social security, not to mention the poor quality of water on commercial airplanes.
Of course, let’s not forget all those very personal worries – your business, your family, your finances, that blockhead your daughter insists on dating, and so on and so on.
It seems we are being pushed to the limit. Every waking moment is filled with worry. We worry about the things that we need to get done, things we won’t get done and, of course, those things we should never have done.
Our lives are so busy, so hectic. Worry has become our major form of exercise.
We have so much to worry about. We need to worry. We have to worry because …? Because?
The truth is worry serves no useful purpose. Worry is merely a bad habit. It’s a habi t we’ve developed because we mistakenly believe that by worrying about a situation we can somehow control it.
We can’t. And worrying doesn’t change that fact.
Of course, if you’re facing a challenge or a problem, you need to give your best effort at overcoming it or improving the situation. Think about what steps need to be taken and what actions would best serve your goal.
Worrying is not an action. It’s not a step that can move you forward to what you hope to accomplish. It’s often just the opposite. Worry can instead get in the way of your best thinking and cloud your better judgment.
Of course, “don’t worry” is so easy to say and so hard to do. It takes real effort, as does breaking any bad habit.
It might help to think of the word wyrgan every time you start to worry. Wyrgan is an Old English word from which our modern word “worry” is derived. Wyrgan means “to strangle.”
That’s an excellent definition of what worry does to you. It strangles you mentally, emotionally and eventually, even physically.
Just think how much better your life would be if you stopped inflicting this daily violence on yourself. You won’t accomplish it overnight, but making the effort to worry less will improve your life.
May you all have less worry.
Denise Lloyd,
Publisher
