What, me worry?

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.
- -Leo Buscaglia

If stress has a flag-bearer, then that title has to go to the mind phenomenon that is worry. Interestingly, the word itself means "to strangle or constrict." This is a great image to keep in mind when you think about worry, as it is the mind that has you in a strangle-hold, constricting any positive flow of energy. Worry has its roots deep within the habitual thought patterns of the brain. It seems that the mind, in an attempt to prove its worth, creates problems and then sets out to solve those problems. This is relatively harmless when struggling over a crossword puzzle or trying to complete your taxes, but when it comes to life problems, such as what to do about one’s past or future, then it moves into the category best verbalized by parents at one time or another, "You’re going to worry me to death."

The ego needs worry to sustain itself—it has formed a conspiratorial relationship with the mind. This relationship has a "you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours" quality, that leaves many of us scratching our heads. Put your worries to the simple test of "Why is this so important to me?" and you will realize how seductive worry is. Try to stop worrying and you will realize how deep its tentacles penetrate—how truly insidious this form of stress can be.

One of the age-old psychological methods for taming the worry beast is to go ahead and have a worry-fest. Set some time aside and worry like there is no tomorrow—you can even worry that there won’t be a tomorrow. Use this time to give in to all of your deepest fears—"my dream of being the next American Idol is never going to be realized, the mole is really skin cancer, the headache is a brain tumor, and my children will grow up to be game show hosts," Doing this, "forced," worrying will have multiple benefits. When you feel a worry cropping up in the middle of the day you can tell yourself to save it for "worry time" and go on about your business.

A mindful approach to worry would be to feel it in your body without the mental commentary—picture CNN with the sound off and the "breaking news" crawl at the bottom of the screen no longer running. Take your attention to the places in your body that worry seems to be lighting up. Whether it is butterflies in the stomach, tension in your neck, or a nervous twitch of the eyelids, go there and observe your body. In the absence of an inner dialogue, you will be amazed at how many of your worries simply dissolve like an Alka-Seltzer in a CEO’s glass of water. When you tune into the music in your body, rather than the voice in your head, you will find that many of the sad songs you have been singing have a new ring to them.

It was Marshall McLuhan who said that the age of anxiety was a result of "trying to do today's jobs with yesterday's tools." This is true for your stress. You have been trying to solve the problem with the same mind that created it. Worrying about your worries only drives the anxiety to deeper levels of your consciousness. In essence, you have been using a hammer when you really need a pair of pliers, a screwdriver where you need to use a saw.

If you stay mindful when worry shows up, you will see it for what it is—a mind cloud that has temporarily obscured the shining of your light. If you are feeling particularly playful, you can even become the weather forecaster who maps out the passing front and seems delighted every time conditions seem favorable for the "perfect storm"--
"Today’s forecast calls for early optimism followed by a heart-warming trend. However, if you look just to the west of this band of bliss you can see doubt building up, and right behind that there seems to be some very high pressure in the form of a deadline. We will probably see some tears by this afternoon followed by some rumblings as dinner approaches."