For as long as I can remember, I've spent the majority of my energy worrying. I worry about anything and everything. I even worry about how much I worry. So, telling me not to worry won't exactly get you very far.
I've spent the last few years of my life trying to be more mindful about "not sweating the small stuff" and trying to make more of a conscious effort to focus on the good things in my life: the things that are going right, and the many blessings I have instead of wasting away my days worrying about things beyond my control as well as things that probably are never going to happen. I'm going to be completely transparent here. More often than not, I fail and my worries and anxieties consume me, but I still keep trying.
This afternoon I was reading one of my devotionals when I stumbled across something that made me stop for a few minutes and really reflect. The Old German root word of 'worry' means "to strangle". Wow. That's exactly what my worry does. It strangles me, It chokes out life, it stifles out my ability to be fully present, it prevents me from being able to enjoy and practice a high level of gratitude for all the good around me, it steals my joy and leaves me tossing and turning sleepless night after sleepless night and attacks my body leaving behind tense muscles, aches and pains, as I'm always braced and preparing for the worst case scenario. This realization made me just look around and ponder everything I have to gain by living a life with less worry. I'm always going to worry. Worrying is part of being a human. My worry, however, is excessive and extremely harmful to my well being. My life could be so different simply by decreasing the amount of worry I let have control over me.
I'm sure I'll still have more moments than not when the worry takes over and tries to consume my thoughts and actions, but I am vowing to make more of an effort to turn those worries into prayers and moments to express gratitude and put positive spins on the circumstances occurring in any given moment. I fully believe a lot of my worries will lose their power when I am successful in turning them over and changing my focus and mindset.
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