Don’t Worry, Be Happy

We all do it, at one time or another – we worry. This worry can be over something real or imagined; in front of us or something we create in our minds.

Worry means, according to Webster’s New World Dictionary, to harass or treat roughly with or as with continual biting or tearing with the teeth; to pluck at, push on, touch, etc. repeatedly in a nervous or determined way; to annoy, bother, harass, vex, etc.; to cause to feel troubled or uneasy; make anxious; distress.

I think that last definition: to cause to feel troubled or uneasy; make anxious; distress, really describes my feelings, as of late. I seem to be unable to calm my mind – I am constantly on edge. I know it’s a plethora of troubles – personal and professional – and I know the best thing to do is not worry, but I can’t help it, it’s part of my nature.

I know that worrying doesn’t help anything. Often times it leads us to believe things that aren’t true. For me, my mind is good at coming up with all sorts of false scenarios that I believe must be true. I work myself up into a frenzy and convince myself that this idea, this concept I have created, is real. Then I focus all my energy onto it and hold on tight. It looms over me, lurks around every corner, every crevice of my mind. I get myself all tense and it’s awful. I just can’t relax or “get a grip.” I tend to pace the floor and often times I cry. What’s worse is I tend to talk my friends ears off over and over about the problems I am worrying about and then worry about that as well – that I will alienate them.

But, I am trying to think of ways to ease my stress. I am learning that exercising, being around people who make me smile and laugh, and trying to control the parts of my world, my life, my thinking that I can, I will. And remember, that this too, shall pass.

Anyone else out there worrying about anything? If so, I’d love to hear your remedies for easing that burden.