Obsessive worry is absorption in self-defeating anxiety and pre-occupation with worst-case scenarios. It transmits negative vibrations and messages to the individual who is the target of the worry. If worry is directed toward situations or circumstances, it creates a discolored aura that permeates the atmosphere. Chronic worriers waste important time and energy agonizing over small and insignificant things that don’t warrant the amount of energy invested in the process. Worry is interest paid on trouble that hardly ever comes due!

Arnold Bennett was more adamant:

Worry is evidence of an ill-controlled brain; it is merely a stupid waste of time in unpleasantness. If men and women practiced mental calisthenics as they do physical calisthenics, they would purge their brains of this foolishness.

The brain is a magnificent instrument—it can process thoughts at an incredible rate of hundreds of words per minute, but it can only focus on one particular thought at a time.

If we are focused on a worrisome thought, that doesn’t leave room for anything else. If we are obsessed about worry, all other forms of positive stimuli are literally blocked. One’s mind cannot entertain two contrasting thoughts simultaneously. So if we are worrying, that’s where our mind is going to stay. On the other hand, if thinking positive thoughts, that’s where our mind will be focused. When focusing on negative energy, the mind is like a battery that is losing power. Worrisome thoughts literally drain energy that is vital to positive outcomes—they exhaust the power supply. Positive energy increases power—negative focus can only drain it.  In the absence of a positive thought, negative worries will almost always creep in. The better alternative is to focus on something positive, and quit worrying. ~ John Q. Baucom, Ph.D.

How do I worry?  Let me count the ways . . .

Who by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ~ Matthew 6:27. Worry means to torment oneself with disturbing thoughts and anxieties and it is capable of invoking anguish, apprehension, perplexity, and vexation. Obsessive worry is repetitious, unproductive thoughts that elicit anxious responses. These thoughts of worriment show up unannounced and without warning—there seems to be little control over them. Sometimes we feel powerless over our own thoughts, as if we are slave to them. Once worry starts, it’s hard to stop and it tends to feed on itself—a circuitous feedback loop that becomes stronger and stronger. When we think about something with intense emotion (whether worry or solace), we give the thought greater power. In some form of physical manifestation, these thoughts are more likely to materialize. If we worry over making a mistake or over a negative outcome, we increase the chances of them occurring. Worries can become self-fulfilling. If we remember the power of thought, we will be more careful about dwelling on painful outcomes.

Thoughts are often misguided, but we have the ability to decide which thoughts to pursue and which thoughts to transmute to more positive wavelengths. If we give importance to monitoring thoughts, we will be less subject to pursuing endless worries and anxieties, for we can prevent negative, worrisome thoughts from becoming embedded in our minds.

Have you ever been around a chronic worrier?

Seldom a day goes by that they don’t worry about some-one or some-thing. People tend to avoid worriers, knowing the probability increases that they will be inflicted with their own set of worries after having been with them—a worry complex is contagious. Worriers experience much pain (tormented by thinking errors) and they also create pain for those around them—the worrier can brighten a whole room by leaving.

While worriers insist that fretting is helpful, little is resolved. Let’s face it. Everyone worries some of the time. Some worries are important signals of tasks that need to be accomplished. If there is something which justifiably causes concern, then take action, but don’t allow worry to stress you out! However, most of the time, worry is unfounded—it anticipates danger, identifies risks, and rehearses interventions for things that never happen. A psychiatrist said to her patient, “You worry too much . . . it doesn’t do you any good.” The patient replied, “It does well for me . . . 95% if the things I worry about never happen.” SMILE, if you are guilty!

Chronic worriers stop living in the moment—they are self-torturers and are usually locked into the past or the future, suffering from an “if only” and “what if” syndrome. “If only” I had done this in the past or “what if” this happens in the future. When focusing on the past, they ruminate and relive crises over and over. “Rumination” describes what a cow does when “chewing its cud” or chewing, swallowing, regurgitating and then chewing it again. This is a good description of the ruminative thinking process, but what good is worry over something that has already occurred?

When looking to the future, worriers look at situations in the worst possible way. They are catastrophizers—viewing most everything that occurs in life as a cataclysmic event, even the most insignificant things. They expect a future event to be worse than it ever turns out to be. In fact, to them, most events are viewed as life or death situations. Why agonize over the future? It’s not here yet! Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. ~ Matthew 6:34. Relish living in the MOMENT and work toward solutions, rather than thinking of bad outcomes.

Points to ponder . . .

The ancestor of every action is a thought and every thought has a consequence.

THE WORRY CHART

Things that never happen. (40%)

Things over and past that cannot be changed with all the worry in the world. (30%)

Needless worries about health. (12%)

Petty miscellaneous worries. (10%)

Real, legitimate worries. (8%)

In short, 92% of the average person’s worries take up valuable time and cause painful stress—even mental anguish—and are absolutely unnecessary. Of the real, legitimate worries (8%), there are two kinds: (1) there are problems we can solve, and (2) there are problems beyond our ability to personally solve.

“If the problem can be solved, then why worry? If the problem cannot be solved, worrying will do you no good.” ~ Shantideva

View the original article on the Life Focus Website.