Worry

"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy."
Leo F. Buscaglia

The stock market has fallen again. The U.S. has dropped a grade on the S&P and timid stockholders are pulling their money out of the market. Fear and worry are flexing their powerful muscles while wreaking havoc with the emotions of investors. Once again worriers are having a field day.

Worry emerges from the deepest of places within us, a vulnerable place devoid of trust and full of skepticism, a place where the world is ugly and mean and the good always finish last. 

Worry takes many forms and one of the most acute is the worry about our well-being. Will we have enough? Will we be taken care of? Will we lose it all? Another extremely powerful worry focuses on those we love and care for. We worry that they won't make the right decisions, that life will be too hard for them, that they will be hurt or miss out on an opportunity. Sometimes our worry reflects a  deeper fear that a client once put so well; "I worry that what I have given them will not be enough."

Then there is the worry that we won't get what we want. This worry stems from a belief that we actually know what is best for us to begin with. Many times a client has sat with me wanting reassurance that life will work out the way he or she wants. They want a "prediction" of the future that guarantees a positive result. What would happen if we began to believe in our ability to excel in life precisely because the unexpected happened? What if we began to turn  the act of worrying on its head by trusting in our own ability to cope with the ups and downs of life and find ways to create a world we love while doing so.

Worry lives in yesterday and tomorrow. Worry takes our minds onto the hamster wheel of mistrust and fear. Worry robs us of our health and our spirit if we let it. Haven't you seen in your own life that when times get hard and people we love are hurting or needing or we are feeling lost or broken the result is often that people rise to the occasion and find ways to love and heal in heroic proportions? Pain and suffering can open the door  for some of the noblest of actions.

I am not suggesting that you invite tragedy into your life but what I might ask is to turn worry into action. By being in action we feel empowered. Some actions are the simple act of meditation or prayer. Another may be to go for a walk, a run or ride, or to reach out and help another. Through these means worry may abate.

Over the past years of economic stress and loss I have had sessions with many people who have had plenty of changes thrust upon them. The ones who have not only survived but thrived are the people who have focused on what really matters to them; the people who have been able to see what is truly valuable in their day-to-day life. A question to ask yourself when worry is spinning out of control is "Can I do anything about this issue at this time?"  You have the power to choose how you react to life, to the stockmarket, to a loss or a fear, to disappointment and to the ever-present unexpected challenges this earthly life is fraught with.

Claim that power and use it, as you have so well in the not so distant past and free your mind from a vision of a sad and scary tomorrow and relish the potential of today.

Love and light,
Nora

I expand my thoughts and free my mind releasing fear and worry with every breath.