"Worry"- Our Culture's Silent Epidemic

Today’s topic is about something we all do- and most of the time-we do it  for reasons we can’t even explain. It serves no REAL purpose, yet we all keep on doing it. And honestly, the only word I know to describe it is painful.

I am talking about Worry!

That constant looping voice that tells us something MIGHT go wrong or be wrong-even when everything is fine. Worry doesn’t solve problems- and accomplishes nothing & it steals our peace, it is quietly damaging our health, and for so many us -it has become a habit that takes up far too much space in our lives.

Worry has quietly become one of the biggest “Dis eases” in America. Again, SO many of us are living with it every single day- carrying anxious thoughts about work, our family, our health, and our future- until our body and mind can’t take it anymore. And when this happens- when the mind and body can’t take it anymore- we often reach for something to numb it and quiet it down.

We may turn to pills, alcohol or quick fixes just to escape  the cycle of worrying- but what’s really happening is that we are treating the symptom and not the source! Worry has become our cultures silent epidemic. It drains our energy, clouds our thinking, and affects our health in ways we don’t even realize.

Did you know that 92% of the things we worry about never actually happen? 92%!! This means that almost everything that keeps us awake at night, tightens our chest, makes us breathe erratically and fills our minds with ‘what ifs”  never even comes true.

And yet, worrying is one of the most common habits we share as human beings. We worry about our kids, our health, our relationships our jobs, our future, the past, our appearance, what someone is thinks about us, or what might go wrong.. WE NEED to STOP this madness.

It is said that worrying is killing us- and while that sounds really dramatic, science actually back it up, so this is true. Worrying is killing us.- we need to NOW worry- about worrying.

Worrying is a mental Habit. It’s the act of imagining negative outcomes for things that have not happened yet. It’s the minds attempt to prepare for danger- to stay ahead of what could go wrong- but instead of protecting us, it exhausts us.

When we worry, our thoughts loop. We replay scenarios. We analyze words, we make assumptions. We live out entire conversations that might never even occur.

Worry is “mental problem solving -about uncertain outcomes.

But there is a catch- the problems we are solving rarely exist in the real world. They exist only in our imagination.

Doubt and worry are very close cousins. Doubt always creates worry- and lack of information raises doubt.

When we do not have all of the facts, our brains fill in the gaps with worst cases scenarios.

Someone doesn’t text back- our mind says “they must be mad at me”, the doctor orders another test and our thoughts jump straight to the worst possible outcome. “they found something else, I am dying”! It’s true right?

It’s absolutely human nature to fill in the blanks- but worry feeds off uncertainty. The less we know, the more stories we create.

Here is some food for thought today:

“Worry is the misuse of imagination”

This means that our brain is designed to imagine possibilities- to plan, problem solve and create. Our imagination is one of the most powerful tools we have. But when we worry, we take that same imaginative power and   create scary “what if “scenarios instead of constructive  solutions.

When you find yourself creating a fearful movie in your mind, change the channel.

See yourself calm, grounded, healthy and at peace. Your body also responds to that imagery too. 

 Enjoy!

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