You are probably worrying about something at this current moment. Either consciously or subconsciously your mind is worrying about something or someone. It may be in the past or future events that you are worrying about. Worry is a constant in everyone’s life, but it is an inhibitor in our lives as well. It is what holds us in fear. Worry is an extension of fear. It is this fear that causes us to stop or to make wrong directions in our paths in life. It is the mind using internal dialog to tell you it is in charge. It gets triggered by a thought, a word, or an event. You might have been going along fine not a care in the world but then you ask your boss how your presentation sounded, that you worked so hard on. He might say it was “Ok”. Your controlling mind will go into, “Why just ok?”, “What did I do wrong?”, “I am not going to get my raise?”, “Is it because my past presentations were better?” or “Maybe he did not like that joke I told in the meeting the other day”. A way you go formulating unknown scenarios in your head and even reflecting in the past events. Your mind tries to control the unknown and you spiral downward into worry. This imaginary dialog creates fear. Worry is the dark side of imagination. Imagination was given to us to create or give us inspiration but on the other side is worry. There are ways to stop the worrying for a short period, meditation or therapy are useful tools but to truly control the worrying we must recognize that we are in control of the thoughts we imagine. To truly get a handle and reduce the worry we need to recognize the past events are uncontrollable, that future events are unknown, and that worry does not live in the present moment. To control the controlling mind, we need to be reason in and let the fear-based imagination go.
You cannot control things that have already passed. You cannot take back an action, words or an event that has taken place. It happened and it is done. Even if it affects the current moment, you are in, you cannot change it. The employee in the scenario above mentioned they told a joke in a past meeting, can they go back in time and change that? When thoughts of past events happen, challenge it. Question yourself, “Can I change it in this current moment?”. It is ok to take ownership for what has happened but, it cannot change what has happened. You cannot control anything gone! So, stop letting it control you. If you can stop, you will see your path of where you need to go more clearly. If you are stuck worrying about what has happen you will be stuck in that moment and your judgments in the current moment will be distorted. Decisions in the moment cannot be clouded by the past. You will make the decisions on what has happened instead of what you can truly do now. Understand that the past is like a wake of a ship the passes in time and cannot hold you there. Worry will hold you on the turbulence of the wake. Let go and challenge the thoughts when they appear.
When we have thoughts of worry about the unknown future, we are trying to control what may happen. The worry thoughts of the future are preparing us for a negative outcome. They are generally not based in reality, because we simply do not know. The controlling mind tries to fill in the gaps of what we do not know with thoughts of worry. Look at the scenario of the event earlier. The employee did not know exactly what the boss meant by “Ok” so, the employee went into filling in the gaps. If we stop filling in the unknown and take “Ok” as “Ok”, where does that leave us? It leaves us in the current moment without worry. It has us not filling in the blanks. The unknown future, like that past, is mostly uncontrollable and making decisions for your future path needs to be clear of worry. If we make decisions in the present moment based in the fear of worry it will not send us down the correct path for our journey through life. Let say the employee starts to question the boss on his reply. They may start saying “I’ll do better next time”. The boss will probably have a reaction of, why are you questioning my input. It was “Ok” not “Bad” so, why do better next time? Our minds dialog filled in the blanks of the unknown with negative outcomes. Worry is based in negatives. Eliminate the negative fill ins and just let the current moment be where it is.
Worry does not have a place in the moment you are in. The current moment is one of action and must be clear of worry. Worry either holds you in a past or future uncontrollable moment. If you recognize you are in a state of worry, challenge it. See where it is based, in the past or future, and understand that you cannot control it at the current moment. The step you take right now is the step that has bearing on what happens so making it free of worry will send you in the right direction. Letting go of the worry by rationale thought will make it a clearer path for you to move forward and impact what needs to happen. You are given the current moment to move yourself forward and worry does not belong in it. Worry will only hold you in the turbulence of the past or fill in the gaps of the unknown.
Worry is a constant and can happen at any moment during our days. If we take the time to bring reasoning into our thoughts instead of the dark side of our imagination, we will see the reality of what we can impact. Your mind will try to take control by using the fear of worry. It will tell you it is in control and it knows better. The control it tries to tell you is that you need to be concerned about the past and that it will fill in the negative blanks in the unknown future story. When this happens challenge the thoughts and watch your mind shift to more reasoning thoughts than worry. The past is over, the future is unknown, and the present is all you have. I have worried my whole life but, it is only when I challenge the worry is when I find peace. Peace of knowing that where I am is where I am supposed to be and I can make a difference right now, not in the past or future. It calms worried filled dark imagination so, I can feed my light side creative imagination. Let you mind rest to create instead of worry and watch where your path goes. The future is brighter if you let it be.