Monday 8 January 2018

Calm The Waters Calm the Mind.


Calm Waters Calm Mind.

Can I begin by saying to the person who asked me to look at the topic of worrying. I hope that I have managed to make a fairly attempt at aswering you questions.

I once met a lady who told me that before going to bed every night she took a sleeping tablet. I asked her if she had trouble with sleeping, her answer surprised me. She told me she did not know because she had been taking this fairly strong sleeping pill for so many years.

"Is there something worrying you?" I asked her. Again I got the same response that she did not know. Why had she started taking the pill in the first place? She could not remember.

Worrying does strange things to us. It is a bit like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it does not get you anywhere.   But yet we all know at least one person in our circle of friends who is a known worrier. I even know somebody who worries when everything is looking good because as sure as hang things can only get worse. In other words, worry pulls tomorrows clouds over today's sunshine.

For several years a woman had been having trouble getting to sleep at night because she feared burglars. 

One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he did find a burglar. "Good evening," said the man of the house. "I am pleased to see you. Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you." 

I heard a voice at evening softly say,
Bear not your yesterdays into the morrow,
 Nor load this week with last week's load of sorrow.
Do not carry burdens all the way.
They are gone and passed just like the day.
Live each day one day by day.
And forward look along the way.

 I was at an orchestral concert the other night and enjoyed the wonderful sound as it filled my head and washed away all thoughts but those of joy.  I remembered the story I once heard when I played the clarinet. It was the story of the clarinettist who went to the conductor and said he was really worried because no matter how hard he tried he could not reach the high C. The conductor looked at him and smiled and said, "Do not worry there is no high C in tonight's performance."

Why fret and worry about something that might not happen.

Here is something that I read one day many years ago but it came back to me just the other day while speaking to somebody who had expressed to me that they were worried about something.

An average person's anxiety is focused on :
40% -- things that will never happen.                                                                                                      30% -- things about the past that can't be changed.                                                                                12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue.                                                                          10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress.
  8% -- about real problems that will be faced.

The 8% will be faced and overcome 99.9% of the time. Kind of puts worries into place. 

Have a good and worry free day.

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