Why Do We Worry?

by Karrin

If we didn’t worry we wouldn’t be alive.  Worry is the necessary beginning of self-awareness.  However, without the tools to process it, it can lead to disease in the form of accidents, illness, behavior and learning problems and anxiety disorders.  Understanding the link between our future worries and our past memories while making a conscious effort to see things in a balanced way is a fundamental key to all personal growth and healing. 

Revisiting the past in order to gain insights as to how to handle the future helps us dissolve our worries. The ability to perceive the future and the past is a remarkable human trait.  The things we worry about in the future can always be linked to a past memory.  Every specific worry reminds us of a past experience.

  

A worry is just a problem without a plan.  In the present moment whatever we are worried about is only an idea.  It is a future projection based on anxiety and panic.  Seeing how we handled the past can help us become aware of how capable we are of handling our current situation. As we dissolve our worries we dissolve our past issues.  When the future and the past are at ease our body relaxes. We become more present, poised, and clear minded.  

Worry, if handled correctly, can lead us to a plan of action.  When worry is transformed it can lead to a balanced viewpoint and gratitude replaces worry and fear.

Appreciating the past automatically gives us more confidence to face the future. The desire to appreciate the past is the key to resolving the fears of our worried minds. Appreciating the past does not make it better or worse.  Appreciation encompasses every emotion and feeling we have in a balanced way. The past is not more negative than positive and the future will also bring a balance of pain and pleasure. The art of appreciation and seeing the balance is a practice. 

Here are a few ways to help:

1.       Pay attention to the things you are worried about.  

2.       Define your worries in terms of emotions.  All future fear is linked to an unresolved past emotion.  

3.       Stop the idea that you worry too much or that you are not worried at all.  Everybody worries.  Everybody worries according to their nature.  

4.       Learning new skills and strategies to cope with your worries helps them transform.

5.       Judging oneself for the way one worries is just another thing to worry about.

Each time we worry we have an opportunity to become self-aware.  When we wisely respond to our worries we become more mature and introspective.  Worry is not a dead end, it is an invitation to see the past and respond to the future in a whole new way. Worry can be a valuable catalyst to living in the present.