Why Worry

• June 16, 2021
• 573 views

We as humans worry all the time over everything. We worry about what other people might think about us; we worry about what will happen to us; we worry about the past, the present and the future[1].

I may not know what you are worrying about, but Emma beck says, “worry is like a rocking chair, it will give you something to do but it will not get you anywhere” [2].

All that worry does is that:

• it takes all your energy away. Thereby, leaving you fatigued.
• it will give you stress.
• it will make you an irritable person.
• it will make you lose sleep.
• it will make you lose concentration.
• generally, it will take your happiness.
• and worrying has been known to also make people sick[3].

So, how come that with all this drawback people still engage in the futile business of worry? Nevertheless, most of the times the things we worry about do not even get to happen.

I guess what happens when things eventually do not happen wrongly as we feared, our subconscious mind gives us a signal that maybe there was no bad outcome because we worried. This way of thinking makes us feel as if worrying is a good thing but, it is not. ‘For whom among us can say that by worrying we can change anything’.

In this regard, I would like to recommend that we get into the habit of embracing responsibility, to face our fears and to reflect on the serenity prayer which says ‘God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference’[4].

[1] Rick Warren. Study Session 3 Letting Go (July 15, 2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqWfiCBdGiY

[2] The Diary of Emma Lucretia Miller Beck 1895-1908. (1895).

[3] Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. (September 2020) https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/how-to-stop-worrying.htm

[4] Shapiro, Fred R. (April 28, 2014).