Does worrying help any situation, ever?
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It steals your time, adds stress to your body, and often debilitates you from being able to do much else in your day. Who is this villain I speak of? Worry, or course.
It’s natural.
When something goes wrong or not to plan, for most of us out there – the flood gates open and in rushes worry. We’re built with this instant reaction as a sort of “red flag”, all the worry-mites go rushing to our minds screaming “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” so we take notice, and are then supposed to start moving the mental cogs to find a solution.
So while this is a natural reaction to a negative situation, at what point do the worry-mites stop being helpful and start causing damage?
When it becomes harmful.
Well, that happens at the point you stop looking for a solution and just focus on the problem. That’s not to say that every single situation out there has a 1-2-3 solution readily available, but fretting, stressing, and straining over the problem just adds more weight to it. The words anxiety and fear start creeping into your mind, and when what happens, out comes debilitation and despondency.
Time to make it helpful!
Your worry-mites are triggers, there stimulating your whole body to put you on your guard – they’re not there to stop you in your tracks to fret over something that has happened or may happen. They’re there to alert you that a solution may be needed. So use the worries as a way to switch from the negative-gear to the positive one — and find a solution.
For example, you may have to deliver an important report to work on Monday. You’ve been hovering over your desk all week making it perfect. It’s the weekend now – how will worrying about whether or not your boss will like it help you now? How will running through the countless future reactions and scenarios add value to your life right now? It won’t. So in this scenario, the solution the worry-mites are looking for from you – their mighty leader – is to take a deep breath in and say, “I’ve done the best I can, and that’s all I can do.“ And every time those little worries come back, just take another deep breath in and say it again….
On the other hand, the worries might wake you up from a still sleep when you realise “Oh! I haven’t started working on that report!” Naturally, the solution is to start assessing what you need to do to get the report done – and do it. Not focus on the fact you didn’t do the report, not focus on what might happen if you don’t get it done on time, not focus on all the things that you don’t want to happen. But to focus on the solution – do what you can to get it done. Put the worry-mites back to bed. And once you’re done, take a deep break in and say, ““I’ve done the best I can, and that’s all I can do.“
Is your best good enough?
We live in an incredibly competitive, harsh-judging and critical world. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept all that it throws at you. When you’ve done the best you can, truly and honestly, no matter of whether it’s good enough for someone else – it’s all you could do. Your best was good enough for you at the time, and that’s all you were able to do.
Accept it. Move on.
And thankfully, in your glorious existence – you get another second, another minute, another week, year, decade – to improve on that better 🙂 Have you ever let worry steal a moment’s happiness from you? Steal away your health? Your smile? We all do it from time to time (some more than others), including myself! So let’s breath in together and use now as a good time to start putting those worry-mites to bed…. Namaste my sweet friends! xo