Why Worry?
As my family came home from church today, our garage door was open. This was unusual, but my brother's car was in the garage and so we weren't too concerned. At least, I wasn't. As we were pulling into the driveway, my mom said, "Let's go inside and then we can start to worry" (or something along those lines).
Anyway, here's what really annoyed me about what my mom said: it sounded to me like she expected that something was wrong just because there was a slightly abnormal (but not necessarily alarming) situation. I mean I guess that's not crazy. If there's something out of the ordinary, it's probably wise to be prepared in case this abnormality is potentially dangerous. Here's what I don't like though:
We have been trained to expect the worst.
Throughout our whole lives, we have been taught all about bad situations and how to avoid/handle them. And I do not discredit the value in being prepared for bad things. I know that if something bad happens, I want to be able to appropriately solve the problem as soon as possible. But the thing is, with all this preparation, we always think that something bad is going to happen, and we are always afraid of anything abnormal or different. We always take any remotely suspicious thing and twist it into a horror that isn't even close to real.
And honestly, I hate that.
I see value in precautions. But I also hate that we limit ourselves based on a small amount of danger, and I hate that we have been raised to assume the worst in any situation. Like if someone said they're going to meet you somewhere at a certain time and they don't show up and they don't offer any explanation, what do you jump to? Generally, I'd say that the first explanations we think of are along the lines of car trouble, getting pulled over, or even car accidents. Why? Why do we always expect the worst, and why are we always afraid?
We're afraid of falling. And we're afraid of the things we don't understand.
And that's a shame.
I realized this a while ago. And I realized that worrying will never get you anywhere. So here's what I did: I tried to flip the table. If there was ever any situation that was concerning or made me uneasy, I traded the irrationally and unrealistically bad explanations and I exchanged them for some equally irrational and unrealistic good explanations. If someone was supposed to be somewhere and wasn't, I would suppose that they stopped to buy me ice cream and they would be there soon, instead of thinking something bad happened to them. Did that ever happen? Nope. But instead of being anxious and uneasy, I looked forward to their arrival, regardless of the lateness. And I didn't waste my time worrying about things that didn't happen.
So here's my question for you today: Why worry?
I know that there are definitely situations where worry and anxiety are justified. But too often we fall into the trap of overthinking the tiniest details, and we are constantly concerned with things that are totally ridiculous. For one second, just think about how much better you life would be if you didn't fill it with a bunch of fear about things that won't happen. I mean it's up to you, but I think the naïve and ignorant approach is a lot more fun.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."
Dear friends, keep in the sunlight. It's a good place to be.
I was like, what?
I guess you have to understand that my mother is a pretty cautious person. Our doors are always locked, our windows are rarely left open, and she will always double-check with us if the garage door closed when we go out somewhere. Let's just say that she like to play things on the safe side. Like really far on the safe side. Not that that's really a bad thing, but it's kinda frustrating to have someone get angry at (and lecture) you for leaving the front door unlocked when you went out somewhere because you didn't want to make the person taking you wait as you locked the door. I mean I totally understand why she's careful, and I'm sure it's helped us in the past, but it gets bothersome sometimes.
We have been trained to expect the worst.
Throughout our whole lives, we have been taught all about bad situations and how to avoid/handle them. And I do not discredit the value in being prepared for bad things. I know that if something bad happens, I want to be able to appropriately solve the problem as soon as possible. But the thing is, with all this preparation, we always think that something bad is going to happen, and we are always afraid of anything abnormal or different. We always take any remotely suspicious thing and twist it into a horror that isn't even close to real.
And honestly, I hate that.
I see value in precautions. But I also hate that we limit ourselves based on a small amount of danger, and I hate that we have been raised to assume the worst in any situation. Like if someone said they're going to meet you somewhere at a certain time and they don't show up and they don't offer any explanation, what do you jump to? Generally, I'd say that the first explanations we think of are along the lines of car trouble, getting pulled over, or even car accidents. Why? Why do we always expect the worst, and why are we always afraid?
We're afraid of falling. And we're afraid of the things we don't understand.
And that's a shame.
I realized this a while ago. And I realized that worrying will never get you anywhere. So here's what I did: I tried to flip the table. If there was ever any situation that was concerning or made me uneasy, I traded the irrationally and unrealistically bad explanations and I exchanged them for some equally irrational and unrealistic good explanations. If someone was supposed to be somewhere and wasn't, I would suppose that they stopped to buy me ice cream and they would be there soon, instead of thinking something bad happened to them. Did that ever happen? Nope. But instead of being anxious and uneasy, I looked forward to their arrival, regardless of the lateness. And I didn't waste my time worrying about things that didn't happen.
So here's my question for you today: Why worry?
I know that there are definitely situations where worry and anxiety are justified. But too often we fall into the trap of overthinking the tiniest details, and we are constantly concerned with things that are totally ridiculous. For one second, just think about how much better you life would be if you didn't fill it with a bunch of fear about things that won't happen. I mean it's up to you, but I think the naïve and ignorant approach is a lot more fun.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."
Dear friends, keep in the sunlight. It's a good place to be.
