Does Worrying Lead to Prosperity?
When I first stepped onto the spiritual path in the early 1970s, a teacher said to me, "Worrying is a waste of time." He puctuated this idea with another statement, "Anything negative is a waste of time."
"What a concept!" I thought and spent many years learning how to replace worrying with a more producive mental activity. This one simple exercise led me in many different directions and allowed me to develop a way of perceiving life that has served me well.
If you are one of the many people worrying about finances at this time, I offer these thoughts:
- Worry requires making up a story about the future, which hasn’t happened yet. It’s just a fear-producing fantasy that exists only in your mind. Imagining a positive future requires the same amount of energy as imagining a negative one.
- When you replace worry with an expectation of a positve outcome, you can create a strategy to facilitate that outcome.
- Ask yourself, "How does worrying help me? Is it a good investment in my time? What can I do instead"
- When you find yourself worrying, take a few deep breaths and divert your attention to something you are grateful for.
- Worry and fear usually go together, so ask yourself, "What am I afraid of?" Examine that fear and dialog with yourself to discover if the fear is fact based or not. Are limiting beliefs about your possibilities perpetrating the fear?
What if you have put yourself in a vulerable position (debting, earning less than you need, making promises you can’t keep, etc). There’s a possiblity that you’ll lose somethng you value. If nothing can be done to change your immediate situation, you may have to face the loss and let it go.
As long as you are alive, you can always rebuild. Do what you can to limit your liability, then let go. People who succeed fail more than people who fail.
Life’s challenges can be the blessings that allow us to grow and thrive!
