Again, or still, I’m observing the worry and fear in the world these days. People are just worried; worried about maybe getting sick? Is their family maybe getting sick? What to do to not get sick? What about my work? The future. And regardless of what side of the fence you’re on, what will happen to the world after the election? And some people are more than worried, they are full-on afraid. So there’s also a lot of fear around. People aren’t going out due to the fear of whatever, or lots of things.
Isn’t worry and fear kind of the same thing? Pretty much, but I find that worry is more mental and fear is more emotional, involuntary. They are pretty close, so let’s use this as a working definition. BTW – my intention here is not to minimize what people are going through. Not at all. As folks are in it, it is real and I get that. I support you in any way I can. Here, I’m just presenting it through another lens, in hopes that it alleviates some of the discomfort some might be feeling.
With that definition in mind, worry, being mental, is something we can control. I love the quote that says ‘Worry is a prayer for something we don’t want.’ The idea is that focusing on something brings it to form. In quantum physics, there’s something called the observer effect which explains that events happen or are changed just by being observed. Watching it. Expecting a certain result. Did that make sense? Listen to it this way. Science is proving that by putting our attention on something, we have can have something to do with either allowing it to happen or actually creating it. Meaning, we are at cause. Think about that for a second….. We create. We are creators. Or co-creators, if that feels better to you.
With worry, we are actually suffering something that hasn’t even happened yet. It may never happen. Based on what we learned about the observer effect, worry could bring this event into play. If we stop worrying about it, we reduce the probability of it happening. In addition, the act of worry puts a dark cloud over our present moment.
Look at us! We have power more than we know…. But what is important here is knowing that the power we have access to is within us and we can use that to create our experience. You’ve heard this before, probably from me, but here you go again. Pay attention to what you are paying attention to. Or more simply, notice what you’re noticing. If you find yourself overly concerned with something that you really don’t have any control over, let it go. It’s as simple as that. Not easy, of course, habits are hard to break, but simple, and it just takes practice. Awareness and practice.
And here’s something else we can do. Talk to someone about it. Anyone. I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how our connections with others alleviate stress, creates inner peace. There is now data that strongly correlates longer life with solid, satisfying, social connections. Sharing our thoughts, having someone hear us, takes the ‘scare’ away, and sometimes just hearing ourselves speak, saying them out loud, puts the fear in its place, which is usually somewhere else, leaving us to breathe a little easier.
Be the creator, bring into your life what you do want.
Just sayin’
“Human beings suffer their own memory and imagination, that is they suffer that which does not exist”. -Sadhguru