The thing about worry is that it’s counteractive.

 

Sometimes, we’re so delighted being happy or ‘in the moment’ that during joy, we feel a strange pull and obligation to remind ourselves to worry!

 

If you've ever attempted (successfully or otherwise) to move away from a preoccupation with worry, it’s entirely plausible that you encountered an odd sense of emptiness or 'something missing'...

 

You may not have even trusted the absence of worry, thinking that the quiet (peace) might be an impending doom!

 

If we calculated all the worries we have had from day dot to now, how many of those thousands of worries eventuated? And, of the ones that did, were they really as bad as we thought?

 

The percentage is in our favour for peace and quiet, not so much for worry-warting!

 

There's something in us that craves busy-ness and action, isn't there? It's beautiful, dangerous and compulsory, all at once...

 

Ever notice how when we have a moment to ourselves, we then crave to go get busy? Worry works like that. But it doesn't have to.

 

When we crave commotion or chaos, it’s more often than not to distract ourselves from something or someone. Sometimes we feel too much, think too hard or go so deep in ourselves that the solution we provide to unanswerable questions or conundrums, is to worry! But does it really solve, do or fix, anything?

 

There’s no shame in relating to worry, it’s a human phenomenon. Being feeling, emotive and intuitive beings, we are all prone to craving chaos and distraction now and then. Sometimes it's even good for you, a temporary relief from all the energy it takes to be feeling, loving human being. It’s when you get stuck though, hiding in worry, that it becomes a problem, for you and others that care about you...

 

When you think about the times in life that you’ve been most settled, at ease, confident and joyful, can you recall being avidly worried about anything? Was it a time where the snowball of stress mounted up so high that it tumbled down, scattering all reason and enjoyment? Probably not! It was probably more like a big vast ocean, clear and lovely on a sunny day. A feeling like being alive and free.

 

Ironically, there may have been times in life that you achieved a settled, joyful place of grace at the end of a snowball scattering! Sometimes the implosion of extended worry ends up handing us a favour. Physiologically, we can only take so much. Until eventually, we throw our hands up and say ‘oh this is ridiculous! I’m not going to worry anymore!’. And in that moment, where you abandon the whole stress structure, you bask in a moment of freedom. Because worry is not freedom, the absence of focusing on it, is…

 

Stressing out is a perfectly normal and profoundly human thing to do – it’s okay!But it’s good to know where it comes from and why. Otherwise, you can start to trust it akin to logic – and worry is not always logical!

 

Worry comes from an intellectual place, not an instinctual place. Being that our intellect is comprised of both coherent dialogue and creative caveats, it should not be confused with Instinct. Instinct is biological, like when you’re around someone or something that feels predatory. It’s not fight or flight – it’s a collaborative art piece of both real world and fantasy world. It’s an intelligence craving vegetables, fed only with saturated fat. In short: it can be sluggish.

 

Worrying, is the intellectual side of you wanting to survive, be loved, be valuable, be good, be seen to be enough and okay – all to a standard you created which may or may not be purposeful.

 

The reason that the standard may or may not be purposeful is because you will probably survive, be loved, valuable, good, enough and okay, without all that worry...

 

If you feel yourself going back to old habits, stop, observe what you're doing, and get the grateful dialogue happening again.

 

Remember: Drop the snowball! Go for the vast ocean and free breeze!

Watch how people respond to you. Observe the different way that you see life, others, events and yourself...

Get back to me with your experiences - I’d love to know what happened!

For a Tool to move away from Worry and into Peace, stay tuned for my Meditation Guides talks on YouTube.

Written by Abby Kempe for AK Services LTD.