As many of you know, I travel a lot, and many times, these travels involve car rentals. In one of my recent travels, I arrived late at night, it was raining and I was in a hurry to get to my final destination. That being said, I didn’t pay too close attention to the vehicle that I was renting, which is very unlike me.
In any case, I was coming out of the store the next morning and noticed a dent, not a scratch, but a dent, in the car. Eeek.
To make a long story short, while I rarely worry anymore, for some reason this just “stuck”, and I spent a lot of the rest of my vacation worrying about this. Then, of course, when I dropped off the rental, they didn’t say a thing!!
Let’s just say I learned my lesson.
This got me thinking about worry, its impact on us and how we can “unstick” ourselves when it just won’t let go of its hold on us.
First of all, it’s important to acknowledge:
And, even more importantly, it pulls us out of the present moment.
So, when this is happening, what can we do?
1. Most of the things we worry about never happen.
Isn’t that the truth?! How many times have you worried about something with your job or something you’re planning and the thing you’re worrying about never comes to fruition? Me too. (This was one of the biggest things that moved me away from most worrying. Well, that, and my 92-year-old grandpa saying the same thing!)
2. Acknowledge yourself.
Part of what I think keeps something “sticking” is the little kid in us that has an underlying fear about the thing we are worrying about. For me, with the above, my family was always worrying about money, so looking back, I think this was one of the things that kept this looming over me. Instead, I should have done a bigger check-in with my little girl to see what she was scared of.
3. Live in the present.
Worry stems from living in the past and the future. But you always have a choice and you can choose to live in the moment. What does this entail? Take in what and who is around you in that moment (vs. that thing you’re worrying about) and enjoyit.
4. Make another choice.
When you’re in the energy of worry, you can choose to re-shift your energy to something, someone or even an energy that’s more positive. I choose peace, calm and ease. I simply see the worry leaving me and breathe this in.
To choosing!
Deb