A friend sent me a most interesting e-mail…you know, the ones you find in your Inbox with some tidbit of wisdom. This one was different: it was an excerpt from a book called Attitude is Everything by Vicki Hitzges, who talks about the concept of waiting before you start to worry. Isn’t that a wonderful idea? You tell yourself that Event A has not yet happened and that you will not worry about it until it does. When it happens, then you can worry! Chances are you’ll be too busy handling it to worry about it. Or chances are greater that it will never happen.
Sounds simple and actually simplistic, doesn’t it? Much of our worry happens because of the messages we tell ourselves–you know, that little ‘nAgative’ tape that plays inside our head. The idea to apply this act of detaching from the outcomes and thus from worry, to our every day lives, makes sense. It helps us conserve valuable life energy for what really matters in the present. So next time you’re tempted to worry about something, take a deep breath, count to ten…and then shelve it.