Break the Habit of worry

(Category: Peaceful, Easy Journey)

Worry is a complete waste of time.  It is based on a form of fear caused by indecision.  You know the old adage: “worrying is like a rocking chair, gives you something to do, but gets you nowhere.”

When has worry ever adding anything to anybody’s life?  This answer is “NEVER”.  It will drain the energy out of a person.  Worry disrupts the sleep patterns.  It interrupts the daily routines.

It can actually become a habit and not a good one.

Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich” says it the best.

“Kill the habit of worry, in all its forms, by reaching a general, blanket decision that nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry.  With this decision will come poise, peace of mind, and calmness of thought which will bring happiness.”

”...nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry...” Powerful words, the price is too high to pay.

Calmness of thought, poise, and peace of mind... What a wonderful place that would be.  Imagine a life free of worry while travel this peaceful, easy journey in life.

Even Jesus, 2000 years ago, said that worry was useless, Can one of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?”* The Master Teacher was adamant about not worrying.

In the mid 60s 7,000 students at the University of North Carolina took part in a personality trait study.  Among the traits measured is the tendency to be optimistic or pessimistic.

In this group, 1630 were found to be clearly pessimistic, chronic worriers.  They were always convinced that things would go wrong.

923 were found to be clearly optimistic.  They found the best in everything.  Always believing that eventually good things would come.

The rest in the study were somewhere in between.

40 years later, 476 of the test subjects died from causes ranging from illness to accidents to suicide and homicide.  The majority of these were the pessimists.  The researchers found that the pessimists had a significantly greater chance of dying younger than the optimists.

Indecision and fear are the harbors of worry.  Worrying about paying a bill.  Worrying about what someone might say.

This can be transmitted in a destructive vibration that will affect those that come in contact.  Often people will feel the negative presence of another person.

By the opposite coin, some people walk into a room and just light it up.  They do not worry.  They look at things in a positive view.

“Think and Grow Rich” talked about the mind being like a fertile garden spot.  Negative thoughts, like worrying, plant weeds and thorn bushes.  Positive thoughts plant beautiful flowers and vegetables.

Work on breaking the habit of worrying.  Each time you worry about something, pause, and attempt to look at it from a different perspective.

In the article, Defeating the Power of Negativity in a Negative World, replacing a negative thought with a positive one was an exercise to improve positive thinking.

To reduce worry though, one has to work in making a decision not to worry, find the root fear if possible, and the peace of mind will follow.

Is this easy to do?  Well, simply put, no!  But it is definitely worth it.

*Matthew 6:25-34 New International version.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?

27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.

29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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