WORRY NOT

Worry is a strange thing. It is as though, for many of us, it is a valued companion and unless we have something to worry about we feel incomplete. Yet worry also causes so much stress and there is some truth in the old adage that “More people die from worry than old age.” I wonder why we worry so much and about so many different things?

We worry about failure. “What will ‘so and so’ think if I don’t succeed?” “How will I be able to manage if I don’t get this job, or pass this test, or finish this job in time?” We worry about success sometimes too. “Will I be able to handle the extra responsibility?” “Will I be able to motivate others successfully?” We all worry about the opinions of other people and many of our thoughts and actions are governed by this concern. Sometimes, this particular worry is beneficial by persuading us to do sensible or helpful things in order to keep the good opinion of others. It would be so much better though were we to do those things because we believed them to be good and necessary, rather than because we fear disapprobation.

We worry about getting old and when we are young we worry about being young and wish ourselves older. We worry about the weather and how it will affect our plans. We worry about the danger of every day life to our children and often over-protect them as a result. We worry about our health and above all, most of us worry about money. We worry about decisions we are called upon to make. Will they be the right ones? With all this worry, it’s a wonder we have time to enjoy life at all!

What can possibly be the reason for all this worry? I feel it has much to do with a lack of trust and a misunderstanding of life and our attitude to it. We are spirit beings temporarily inhabiting a physical body but so few are fully aware of this that we tend to measure almost everything against the yardstick of the material world. We become impatient because our senses tell us we have such a limited time in which to achieve our hopes and ambitions. This is only the case for those hopes and ambitions that are purely materialistic in character. The wider ones we have eternity in which to achieve.

We fail to recall our spiritual heritage and also do not realise that we chose to live this life at the time and in the family we are part of. Before choosing, we must have been made aware of more or less, what experiences awaited us which is the reason we chose to come when and where we did. I believe we are therefore always at the point we are meant to be in our lives and that our inner self, our soul or spirit, knows what we need to take the next step in our eternal spiritual evolvement. It therefore leads our steps in the right direction, even when those steps bring us difficulties, unhappiness or even grief. These things are really opportunities to strengthen our soul for the next part of our journey which we are intended to enjoy. Remember too that grief, in particular, only lasts because we fail to accept that life continues beyond the grave. Once we accept that, grief lasts much less time, for we KNOW that one day we will be reunited with the loved one we have lost..

By worrying, almost certainly without any need to, we prevent ourselves from enjoying the journey. We become unable to ‘smell the flowers’ as it were. That nagging impatience prompted by the senses that feel they have so little time left, blinds us to the beauty of this wonderful world in which we live. It also colours our reaction to events, makes us disappointed when things turn out to be different from what we would like them to be and the worry these generate forces us to react in negative ways that make matters worse than they should be.

Children give us the ideal example to follow. They are completely spontaneous. They accept things as they are and do not expect them to be different. If something hurts them they look forward and quickly forget the hurt in the wonder of the next experience. If only we could adopt the same attitude, we would find life a much happier and more positive experience. The challenges we face would not be magnified by worry or doubt and we would also know that by going within and being still, we can receive help and guidance from that soul which is wiser than the senses.