[ken l]

Just wanted to share this take on Worry.
Worry is something even after 10 years in recovery I need to continuously work on.
Easy to get into the worry mode and stop focusing on recovery.
Ken L GRCG

NEEDLESS WORRY

A story worth dusting off is about a man who bragged: "I only worry
about two things – whether I am sick or well. If I’m well, I have
nothing to worry about. And if I’m sick, I’ve only got two things to
worry about – whether I get better or whether I die. If I get
better, I have nothing to worry about. And if I die, I’ve only got
two things to worry about – whether I go to heaven or hell. If I go
to heaven, I have nothing to worry about. And if I go to hell, I’ll
be so busy greeting my friends I won’t have time to worry. So why
worry?"

Regardless of how you feel about his view of life after life, he
makes a good point about worry. There is really no room for needless
concern about the future. I like what Ralph Waldo Emerson said about
worry:

"Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From evil that never arrived."

If you’re like me, more than once you’ve found yourself enduring
"torments of grief" from evil that has not yet arrived and probably
never will. Almost without our being aware, healthy concern for the
future can be transformed into cancerous worry. "What if?" we ask.
"What if something happens?" "What if things don’t turn out?" "What
if.?" Worry can become an all-too-constant companion we might wish
would just go away and leave us alone.

And I’m sure about one thing: that my high anxiety about the future
doesn’t help me with tomorrow’s troubles; it only succeeds in
ruining today’s happiness. The Dalai Lama said something similar.
When asked what surprised him most about humanity, he answered,
"Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then
he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so
anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the
result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he
lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never
really lived."

I believe that needless worry, more than anything else, has kept me
from really living. It has never helped me solve real problems; it
has only destroyed what happiness I might have found in the present.
What is worry other than habitual fear of the future? It is a habit
of feeling fear. And, like any other habit, it can be hard to break.
But also, like any other habit, it CAN be replaced with a better
one.

So, what might happen if you should decide to let go of that
needless worry — just for today? Can you do it, for one day? What
do you have to lose besides anxiety? And look what you may gain – a
chance to REALLY LIVE.

Sounds like decent trade to me.

— Steve Goodier

[作者]

文章