Worrying

As humans I think we put ourselves through unhelpful, and unnecessary imaginings. My mother used to worry all the time. Whenever I went out to play as a youngster and then in later years when I would drive somewhere or go on a trip she'd worry. But she came by it honestly, my Grandmother was worse. She would sit around and wring her hands saying things like, "what's becoming of the world?" and "everything is so terrible it will all end soon, don't you think?" Someone once defined worrying as "suffering in advance." I read somewhere about the human mind being like a pendulum. It swings back and forth from the future to the past. Sometimes we remember what happened last year or the year before and all it's events and what it meant to us. Sometimes we look to the future thinking about what things could be like. When the pendulum hits bottom, it's the present.

I don't think it's too helpful to focus too much on the past (unless you're old and sentimental), until retirement years. Recalling the past and brooding over regrets or negative things serves little purpose. When I think about the future it's just not healthy to think about what might happen and worry over things out of my control.

Andre Gide said, "In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future." I see this in meetings at work. It's not uncommon for everyone to get paralyzed over things both past and present. Solutions are right there when we focus on the here and now and everyone is engaged in today's answers. I think it's important to live right now and minimize the distractions which are mostly out of my control anyway. When I pay attention to the here and now, then solutions usually present themselves. Of course, that calls me to some sort of action which is relevant and helpful.