Since a great picture paints 1000’s words, I am going to keep this very short today.
I fortunately have a gifted friend who is SO GOOD as drawing simple images, with a comic book funky style, and delivering a VERY CLEAR message.
Today’s message is also inspired by a book I am reading – called Living Beyond The Mind: The End of Personal Suffering by Troy Valencia – which delves into the teachings of yoga, Buddhism and Hinduism (plus western psychology and neuroscience).
The book goes into a lot more depth.
But today I want to focus on just one distinction.
Reinforced by my friend (Leah Pearlman’s) beautiful and poignant picture and depiction below.
We, most likely, tend to worry way too much about things which never happen.
Hands up if that applies to you?
I was certainly a serial worrier in my younger years (less so now).
Which generally serves a useful purpose, if done for a minute or two (maximum).
Worrying longer than about 2-mins and the benefits start to drop, until you cross the neutral line, and then come into the realm of it being very, very UN-USEFUL.
So, feast your eyes on the 1,000 word message below (thanks Leah), and I will join you on the other side.
What to do
I said I will keep it short, so here goes.
I have found, over the last 27-years of trying different strategies, that one of THE BEST tools I have to disrupt the “Worry about things that don’t happen” Habit is…
a very simple question…
(Drum Roll)
And you have likely heard it from me before.
“What is the Reality?”
This is why it works pretty damn well.
It causes blood and oxygen to go to the upper brain.
It expands your vision and perception.
It removes all the “fictitious” stuff from the image in your mind.
It causes you (and maybe even forces you) to get your feet planted back on the ground.
It turns off the drama script.
It removes “make-believe”.
It refocuses your senses on Reality.
And probably gets rid of about 80% of what you were worrying about.
So, here is my challenge to you.
Do nothing else apart from ask yourself this one question, multiple times if you have to, and see if it makes a difference.
Don’t believe me?
Then believe yourself.
My Parting Words
Today’s message is simple.
It’s short (also because I am on holidays now).
But it (worry) is also the source of a lot of suffering in our modern world.
Where we – unlike our ancestors – worry more about the things that don’t exist in our sensory reality.
It’s okay to worry about things that are real and need to be addressed.
But the truth is, we often do a whole lot of worrying about imagined stuff.
Use the “What is the reality?” question regularly, and experience the difference it makes.
Spend energy where it is needed, and not chasing phantoms.
That is pretty much all.
Try it, and see.
Have a delightful day, and a week dealing with (the real) reality. 😉
Quotable QUOTE:
“What is the reality?“Carl Massy
(Author of 18 Ways We Make Life WAY Harder Than It Needs To Be)
PS: Have you read or listened to this book yet? 18 Ways We Make Life WAY Harder Than It Needs To Be
