Quote of the Week – Topic: Worry

Worrying about something that may never happen is like paying interest on money you may never borrow. (Unknown)

Worry really is the most useless emotion known to man. It solves nothing. It fixes nothing. Plus, it manages to wreak havoc in our minds and increases our stress levels exponentially. The only type of person who benefits from worry is an insurance agent *grin*.

I’ve worked really hard the past 10 years to eliminate all worry from my life.

As a parent, eliminating worry can be difficult to do–after all most, if not all, parents experience an occasional hiccup of worry when we see our toddler make the trek up the stairs for the first time or watch our newly licensed teenager take off in the car or one of the many similar situations.

I tend to let worry slip in when I think about a lack of health insurance or if I’m doing an adequate job as a mother. But when those times show up, I send them packing. How? With a simple reminder that worrying about it will not change anything. It will only cause me to miss out on being in the now, and now is the only thing I can control. For example, while I’m sitting there worrying my toddler might slip and fall, I’m missing out on the realization and enjoyment that my little person is now walking on their own, and I could’ve been there in the now with her if I had swatted the worry bug away.

Don’t miss out on the present because you’re worrying about yesterday and tomorrow.

I think this worry-free attitude is what helped me through some of the roughest times of my life. Living on $300 a month, feeding two mouths, was scary, but I did not allow my mind to change the facts of the situation. No, I didn’t have a lot of money to live on, so I had to stretch a dollar pretty far. But I also realized that sitting there, dark cloud over my head, staring at my empty checking account would do nothing. It would change nothing and certainly wouldn’t help me cope with the situation.

I am of the thinking that what you put out in the universe, you get back. If you give off a lot of worry and stress then you’re going to get it back in one way or another. Instead I adjusted my thought to be, “I’ll do what I can.” If a bill had to go unpaid, then it did. It is only a bill after all. If the laundry was beginning to resemble Mt. Vesuvius and I was exhausted from a long day, it was put off for another day. I didn’t worry about it. This freed up my mind to enjoy being able to love and nurture my daughter, one-on-one, her entire life.

Usually if I can’t beat the worry down on my own, I call in reinforcements in the form of my sister. She’s great at putting things in perspective for me and reminding me not to sweat the small stuff. She’s also been devouring the teachings of an author named Eckhart Tolle, specifically his book, A New Earth, which she shares on occasion. If you haven’t heard of him, check out one of his books. He is very spiritual but is fairly easy to interpret. Some of the excerpts she’s read to me have been pretty powerful.

So, “Don’t worry. Be happy!”