To Worry or Not to Worry

To worry or not to worry? Want to know what happens in your mind when you worry about something? Though each one of us has our own individual style of worrying, there are certain patterns that are common to all of us.

When we worry, we start to build stories in our mind about how one thing will give rise to the second and then to the third and so on and so forth. People who worry a lot are quite creative in their thinking.

So is that a genuine reason to worry or not to worry? People who worry can put their story-building (creative) skills to better use if they use it for something constructive instead.

Worry and Fear go hand-in-hand

The emotion that gets created when we worry is the emotion of fear and as most of us would have heard already, Fear is the root cause of all evil. We become so afraid of the story we build in our minds that we worry almost incessantly while imagining the story over and over again in our minds.

The unhappiness we create while imagining the story and the future turn of events hangs like a dark cloud over our mind and prevents us from feeling bright or happy.

Such a frame of mind can even become a habit for people who feel they are only doing the natural thing by worrying. They feel guilty when they are not worried as they become so used to thinking in a set pattern.

This is not to say that all our fears are imaginary and life never poses any problems or challenges. There are problems and there are challenges as well but we must always remind ourselves that the way we think when we worry might not be the way the future turns out.

There is always a strong element of chance attached to future events and try as we might, we cannot predict the future. There is always a strong “maybe” attached to all future happenings and this is what we need to remind ourselves of every time worrisome thoughts start to cloud our mind.

Plan Ahead but Avoid Worrying

The right way to approach any problem that might be worrying you is to think about it logically without building negative thoughts and to create an intelligent plan to tackle it in case it does become a reality.

There is a difference between worrying and planning ahead and the latter needs to be preferred over the former to live life well and keep our mind healthy.

Anirudh was an intelligent corporate professional who had been fired from an organization after a verbal war of words with his arrogant and overbearing supervisor. Though honest and smart in his work, Anirudh was not one to tolerate unjustified bullying. Though Anirudh landed a new job with ease, this unpleasant experience instilled a permanent fear in his mind and he constantly worried about losing his job again even when there was no reason to do so.

This worry and fear impacted the quality of his life as well as his health and relationships since he constantly remained edgy and irritable. It was only when he faced his fear and created a contingency fund to help him in case he had to face a job loss situation again that he became free from fear and worry.

Conclusion – To worry or not to worry

One of the habits that spoil our quality of life more than we realize is the habit of worrying. It is important to plan for the future but worry is something to be avoided since it is a fruitless and harmful thing.

Anytime a worrisome thought enters your mind and you start to build a story around the future turn of events in your mind based on the worrisome thought, stop and remind yourself that what you might be worrying about might never happen at all.

Stop the story in your mind before it soaks up all the joy from your life and focus on thinking constructively instead. Hope you have answer to the question “To worry or not to worry?”