Goodbye Worry. Hello Peace!

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Worry less?  Easier said than done, but help is on the way!    

We all kind of know that we shouldn’t worry.  It’s bad for our physical and emotional health. But, it’s hard to give it up and takes time.  It’s like giving up smoking. Not many of us can do it cold turkey. First we cut down on how many cigarettes (or bouts of worry per day), then we go to the patch, then maybe some nicorette gum, before we can totally give it up.

Consider where you are in in this process and accept it. Own it. It’s ok. (It’s the first step.) When we regularly think a certain way, our brain actually gets wired that way and if we want to change the way that we think, we have to make new pathways in the brain. This takes time. So no judgment, just compassion, understanding and being conscious and deliberate about what we’re thinking.

Just like giving up smoking, ( I really don’t know why I have this smoking analogy.  I’ve never smoked.  But, we’re just going to go with it, so stay with me.) it’s best if we replace the smoking with something else.

1. Gratitude: (gratitude transforms any negative situation to a positive. “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”)

Pause for a few moments and consider a situation that you’re struggling with.  See if you can feel gratitude because of some opportunity it’s offering you.

•   If you’re struggling financially it may be an opportunity to learn more trust, creativity, patience, realizing what’s really important in life, etc.
•  If you have a loved one that is sick, it may be an opportunity for you to share your love by nurturing and getting closer to them and to learn about deeper, more intimate relationships.
•  If you don’t have that “true love” relationship that you yearn for, it is always an opportunity to work on that relationship with yourself, growing love and acceptance for yourself.  We must learn to treat ourselves the way that we want “That Beloved” to treat us.  Be the thing that we want.  Create it on the inside in order to create it on the outside.

We can also be grateful to our Creator for our life.  And guess how we can show that gratitude? …… No, We don’t have to sacrifice a cow! By enjoying this Life!!!!

Yes!  Imagine you make someone a delicious meal. You spend the time planning it out, go and buy the best fresh ingredients, take your time to make it perfect and with love.  You plan the colors and the presentation. You are excited to give this gift and hope that they will enjoy and savor each and every bite.

Then you invite them to your house where you serve it to them….. but they have no excitement about the meal?!  They act like it’s just barely edible.  They spend most of their time complaining about it, and they don’t appreciate it at all!  They aren’t present to be able to enjoy it because they’re multi tasking reading their email on their phone and watching TV while they eat it!  They even let it sit there until it’s cold!  They don’t even notice the beautiful colors in it and the presentation of it.  Then, they pour ketchup all over it so they can barely even taste the delicacy of it. How would you feel?

Well, how do you think our Creator feels when we do this very same thing about the Life He has given us?!  We can show our gratitude by enjoying Life!!  And there is SO much to enjoy!

2. Talk with a Wise Friend

Sometimes when we’re in the midst of a bout of worry be become temporarily insane!  Really!  Well, I know I have.  The worry snowballs and the stories in our heads become more and more dramatic and catastrophic.

eg.  I lose one client and the worry starts. Then the next thing you know I have images of myself pushing a shopping cart down main street and sleeping in a cardboard box.

When this happens, It helps us to just say to yourself, “STOP”. Then call a wise and trusted friend.  Not the friend who feeds the worry monster, I mean the OTHER friend who always seems to know the right thing to say.  The one who’s not afraid to slap you in the face….. I mean talk some sense back into you and ground you back in reality.

3. Trust (let go) : Trust that The Universe will give you what you want…..or something better.

Here’s another analogy.  You have a baby and you ask someone that you know is loving and loves your child just as much as you do, like perhaps your husband or wife or their grandparent, to watch the baby while you go out.  So they come over to watch them and hold out their arms to take the baby, but you don’t give the baby to them.  You have to actually “let go” of the baby for them to take him/her.  So the two of you are standing there and you say, yes, I really want you to watch my baby and they say ok and they’re there with their arms stretched out, but you don’t actually “hand over the baby” !

They cant really watch him/her if you don’t actually “Let Go”.   We are saying with our mouth that we trust them to watch our baby, but our actions are showing something different.  We really don’t trust them, do we?  ( Oddly enough “Jesus Take the Wheel” just popped into my head.)

Or, how about this, scenario:  We let go and leave the baby with the sitter while we go out, but then we call every 20 minutes saying, “ Please watch my baby!” We cry and plead on the phone, “Pleeeease, Pleeeease, watch after my baby!  Please don’t drop them!  Please don’t let them get hurt or forget that you’re watching them and go and do something else!”  They’d think we were a total LOON!  Yet, a lot of us pray in this same way.

Gratitude is the vehicle and Trust is the destination to the Island called Peace of Mind.

Here is a meditation I recorded for my YouTube channel to help say goodbye to worry.