Worry is when one begins to feel or express great anxiety or apprehensive uneasiness. Many years ago the Mayo Clinic reported that statistically 80 to 85 percent of their total case load were ill either in reality or artificially due to stress. It had been stated that at the beginning of the century bacteria were considered the major causes of illness, but now stress has replaced bacteria.
People worry either about things that “may happen” or things that “may not happen.” Those who worry for whatever reasons have a great fear or dread of what may or may not come about. Therefore, what they are worried about hasn’t actually happened, but they can’t get it out of their mind that something bad will happen or something good will not.
People may tell us not to worry because everything will be alright. But we may think how do they know everything will be alright? That thought could start a vicious cycle. Thankfully, there is no proof of what may physically happen to us tomorrow. Probably, if one hundred people were told they could see into the future to see what will happen to them, my assumption would be 98 people wouldn’t want to know. How would the 2 react who chose to look into the future? One of them found out that he would live a long and prosperous life. Does this mean he will be worry free? He may not worry about himself, but his fate will differ from that of his family. He was not told that all would be well for them, so now he will worry about them.
What if the other one who looked into the future found out that her end was very near. Wouldn’t this give her more reason to worry? So, really the two who look into the future are no better off than the 98 who didn’t. What if then the 98 who didn’t look into the future now worry about missing their opportunity to have done so. Will the cycle ever end?
Worry can be a vicious cycle that unfortunately can lead to many illnesses. What they worried about never happened, but then the worry of it leads to an illness that they have that now they are really worried about being sick. Now they are worried about the illness they have even though they know that worrying about it is only going to make it worse.
The National Bureau of Standards once stated, “a dense fog covering 7 city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of something less than one glass of water.” This means that if all of that fog could be gathered together it could be held in a single drinking glass with room for more. Someone anonymous once told that our worry about things can be compared to fog. “If we could see into the future and if we could see our problems in their true light, they wouldn’t blind us to the world or to living our life. Instead, they would be seen in their true light; regulated to their true size and place knowing there was nothing really to worry about. All our huge mountains of problems can be shrunk down to fit in a drinking glass that we then can pour down the drain releasing the worry.
To tell yourself not to worry is easier said than done. A local doctor once told a patient that was overcome with anxiety about a recent life event told that he was reminded of a sign his father had in his office, “why pray when you can worry?” Once in a Reader’s Digest a story told of a worried lady who worked for a veterinarian was going to have surgery and his advise to her, “Turn your worries into prayers, get plenty of rest and don’t lick your incision.”
Prayer and meditation are proven to help decrease worry, but don’t worry if you have to use medication to deal with true Anxiety and/or Depression that is not just “situational.” For those out there who may think using medication is “wrong” to treat this disorder then if they are wearing glasses tell them to take them off; or the next time they have a headache or stomach ache don’t use any OTC meds or go to the doctor.
There is another anonymous quote that states, “if we worry we can’t trust. If we trust we can’t worry.” My version of this would be for those who tend to worry we do have a promise we can find hope in. Philippians 4:6-7 basically states that if we are worried about anything, if we present it to God with prayer and thanksgiving we will be given a peace that transcends all understanding that will guard our hearts and our minds.
Rewritten from article originally written November 10, 1999
~TRS
Rays of Hope 