Worry is a pervasive and perverse state of mind. It is pervasive because it’s companion state of fear is the currency of media news broadcasters. The experience of fear is incited by the belief that there is a powerful and imminent presence that is intent on keeping you from achieving your desire or, more potently, intent on taking from you that which you currently have. Once the story of this presence takes hold, the mind formulates and recycles worry thoughts – visions of these unwelcome events coming to pass.
Worry is perverse because it is not a creative state of mind in which you are actively engaged in moving toward that which you inwardly desire. Worry is, instead, a state that is entirely reactionary and focused on the world outside of yourself and beyond your control. And, because the story that causes you to worry is something outside of your control and influence, worry engenders a state of impotence, as well.
There is, however, a way to use this state to one’s glorious advantage and, in the process, to transform one’s mind to regain a more effective and comfortable relationship with the world. When you become aware that you are experiencing a worried state, allow it to awaken you to these three greater truths:
a) your attention has drifted from the only life over which you have authority — your own;
b) you have chosen to invest your imagination in a story about an unpleasant outcome, a story which relies on the, often unverified, perception that the people involved lack the capacities to deal effectively with the events in their own lives; and
c) you are also, simultaneously, investing in the story that you are more capable of dealing with their challenges than they are.
The next time you recognize you have fallen into the trance of worry, simply turn your attention back to those details of your own life which you can effectively influence and affect. Through this realignment of attention, you will both recover your own composure and you will be contributing mightily to the forward, creative flow of life. In addition, you will be a beacon of light who demonstrates how to live boldly while allowing others the respect and dignity to delight in their own adventures and experiences as they choose.
Should someone, then, ask you for assistance, your mind is open and ready to contribute the skills you actually possess to help effect a satisfactory outcome.