By Klaus Döring
Worries, doubts, and anxieties are a normal part of life. It’s natural to worry about an unpaid bill, an upcoming job interview, or a first date.
But “normal” worry becomes excessive when it’s persistent and uncontrollable. You worry every day about “what ifs” and worst-case scenarios, you can’t get anxious thoughts out of your head, and it interferes with your daily life.
Constant worrying, negative thinking, and always expecting the worst can take a toll on your emotional and physical health. It can sap your emotional strength, leave you feeling restless and jumpy, cause insomnia, headaches, stomach problems, and muscle tension, and make it difficult to concentrate at work or school.
You may take your negative feelings out on the people closest to you, self-medicate with alcohol or drugs, or try to distract yourself by zoning out in front of screens.
Chronic worrying can also be a major symptom of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), a common anxiety disorder that involves tension, nervousness, and a general feeling of unease that colors your whole life.
If you’re plagued by exaggerated worry and tension, there are steps you can take to turn off anxious thoughts. Chronic worrying is a mental habit that can be broken. You can train your brain to stay calm and look at life from a more balanced, less fearful perspective.
Really? Do you let the worrier take over your life and your present situation? A pessimist, a worrier, an alarmist, a license dodger, name it whomever you like. Call some, they are all between us. Maybe her or she or even you?
We hardly count our blessings. We enjoy counting our crosses. Instead of gains, we count our losses. We don’t have to do all that counting – computers do it for us. Information is easily had. Especially during these terrible times of pandemic.
Just remember this: Opportunity doesn’t just knock – it jiggles the door-knob. and “your friend” – the worrier, is with you day and night, at every corner, following your every step. Complaining and grumbling are good excuses, right? We have time and opportunities to do almost anything. So why haven’t we done it? We have the freedom of bondage or restraint, every one of us in his or her very special unique way – but, we’re still our old inferior selves.
The job is boring. Even at the present home office. I don’t get a good job. The house is an unpleasant mixture of tidy and dirty things. It’s a mess. I’m not in the mood to arrange my garden. I can’t afford a gardener. That’s life. How sad. No, it’s not my fault; or course not.
The whole world is an awful place filled with dreadful and horrible negativism. Right now because of the pandemic. Yes, I confess, I’m also surrounded by many worriers who put their fears into me. Politicians, i.e., many times love to search for some grave alarm that will cause individuals to abandon their separate concerns and act in concert, so that politicians can wield the baton. Calls to fatal struggles and fights are forever being sounded.
The overbearing person, who tyrannizes the weak, who wants to dominate and to bluster, is simply nothing else than a worrier, who claims to be a friend. But he or she isn’t. Really not! The bullying of fellow citizens by means of dread and fright has been going on since Paleolithic times. The night wolf is eating the moon. Give me silver and I’ll make him spit out.
Well, when will we start counting our courage and not our fears, or enjoy instead of our woe? Worrying itself is pointless. Of course, no society has achieved perfect rules of law, never-ending education or unique responsible governments. Let’s seek out the worries but avoid the warriors, because they try to avoid liberty.
If you are still worrying right now about something, try to read Jeremiah 29:10-14 or Revelation 21:1-8, just to mention these two. It works. And in my opinion: Let Jesus take over.
No, I don’t give up… .And you shouldn’t give up too!
+++
Email me: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Linkedin Facebook or Twitter or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com .
