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Positivity Blog<br />
How <strong>to</strong> Overcome Your Worries:<br />
5 Timeless Thoughts from <strong>the</strong> L<strong>as</strong>t 2,500 Years<br />
by Henrik Edberg<br />
―If you <strong>as</strong>k what is <strong>the</strong> single most important key <strong>to</strong><br />
longevity, I would have <strong>to</strong> say it is avoiding worry,<br />
stress and tension. And if you didn’t <strong>as</strong>k me, I’d still<br />
have <strong>to</strong> say it.‖<br />
-- George F. Burns<br />
―The greatest mistake you can make in life is <strong>to</strong> be<br />
continually fearing you will make one.‖<br />
-- Elbert Hubbard<br />
―If you want <strong>to</strong> test your memory, try <strong>to</strong> recall what<br />
you were worrying about one year ago <strong>to</strong>day.‖<br />
-- E. Joseph Cossman<br />
You are going about your regular day in your usual<br />
f<strong>as</strong>hion. Then a thought or a feeling strikes you. It<br />
multiplies and start circling around and around in your<br />
head. Becoming louder and louder <strong>as</strong> it saps your<br />
strength and makes you feel weaker.<br />
Worries can really put a wet blanket over your life and<br />
suck <strong>the</strong> excitement and fun right out of it.<br />
So strategies are needed. Strategies <strong>to</strong> redirect our<br />
thoughts and feelings away from <strong>the</strong> worries and <strong>to</strong><br />
make <strong>the</strong>m fade away and let us regain inner peace or<br />
at le<strong>as</strong>t make those worries manageable.<br />
What can you do about worries? Here are five timeless<br />
thoughts <strong>to</strong> help you overcome or at le<strong>as</strong>t lessen <strong>the</strong><br />
worries in your life. I hope you find something<br />
helpful.<br />
1. Ask yourself: How many of <strong>the</strong> things you feared<br />
would happen in your life did actually happen?<br />
―When I look back on all <strong>the</strong>se worries, I remember<br />
<strong>the</strong> s<strong>to</strong>ry of <strong>the</strong> old man who said on his that he had<br />
had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never<br />
happened.‖<br />
-- Wins<strong>to</strong>n Churchill<br />
―If you want <strong>to</strong> test your memory, try <strong>to</strong> recall what<br />
you were worrying about one year ago <strong>to</strong>day.‖<br />
-- E. Joseph Cossman<br />
This is a big one. Most things you fear will happen<br />
never happen. They are just monsters in your own<br />
mind. And if <strong>the</strong>y happen <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong>y will most often not<br />
be <strong>as</strong> painful or bad <strong>as</strong> you expected. Worrying is most<br />
often just a w<strong>as</strong>te of time.<br />
This is of course e<strong>as</strong>y <strong>to</strong> say. But if you remind<br />
yourself of how little of what you feared throughout<br />
your life that h<strong>as</strong> actually happened you can start <strong>to</strong><br />
rele<strong>as</strong>e more and more of that worry from your<br />
thoughts.<br />
So whenever I am struck with worries, I <strong>as</strong>k myself<br />
this question and I remind myself of how little of<br />
<strong>the</strong> things that I have worried about over <strong>the</strong> years<br />
that have actually become real. I find that this most<br />
often calms me down.<br />
2. Ask yourself: Am I making a mountain out of<br />
a molehill?<br />
―Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.‖<br />
-- Swedish Proverb<br />
―Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through <strong>the</strong><br />
mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel in<strong>to</strong> which all<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r thoughts are drained.‖<br />
-- Arthur Somers Roche<br />
―If you treat every situation <strong>as</strong> a life and death<br />
matter, you’ll die a lot of times.‖<br />
-- Dean Smith<br />
It’s very e<strong>as</strong>y <strong>to</strong> fall in<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> habit of making<br />
mountains out of molehills. You think and think<br />
about a small problem until it becomes something<br />
that you believe may ruin your life.<br />
So why do we do it? Why don’t strive <strong>to</strong> make<br />
things e<strong>as</strong>y and simple?<br />
Well, one re<strong>as</strong>on I believe is protection from pain.<br />
By making <strong>the</strong> problem huge can you can invent a<br />
helpful excuse <strong>to</strong> convince yourself <strong>to</strong> not take<br />
action.<br />
Ano<strong>the</strong>r re<strong>as</strong>on is that <strong>the</strong> ego wants more. It wants<br />
<strong>to</strong> feel better or worse than someone else. By<br />
making things more complicated than <strong>the</strong>y need <strong>to</strong><br />
be you can make <strong>the</strong>m feel very important. And<br />
since you are involved in <strong>the</strong>se important things,<br />
since you have <strong>the</strong>se BIG problems, well, <strong>the</strong>n you<br />
have <strong>to</strong> be important <strong>to</strong>o, right? Plus, by doing so<br />
you can get a lot of attention and comfort from o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
people.<br />
38 <strong>Yang</strong>-<strong>Sheng</strong> (Nurturing Life) Volume 1, Issue No. 7