I shocked myself with the realization that I was afraid to stop worrying. Then I became embarrassed. I was a meditation teacher for om's sake! My attachment (habit) to worry was living and breathing right under my radar and I hadn't even recognized it.
It all started when I read this, "Many of the reasons we feel compelled to worry can be categorized as attempts to gain control over or brace ourselves for some aspect of the future. " Hmmm…yes, I can see this.
And then I read the following 5 most common reasons why people worry. And it all started becoming crystal clear.
Maybe it was because I had never seen them clustered together like this. Or maybe it was because I was nodding my head in agreement to each and every one of them that made the impact.
Regardless, I realized I had just encountered the 5 Headed Dragon of Worry and boy did I have some slaying to do. Let me give them to you here :
Worrying will stop something bad from happening in the future.
Worrying about a negative outcome will motivate to prepare us for it.
Worrying helps us come up with all our options for a particular situation.
Worrying helps us feel as if we are doing something about the problem.
- Worrying is sometimes used to help us avoid thinking about something else.
Are you emphatically nodding your head right now? I am… Every time I read this list I am struck by how it feels like I am face to face with a mind reader.
The first step to my Slaying the 5 Headed Dragon of Worry was knowing these 5 false notions were common misbeliefs. Radar Detection was going bonkers!
Finally. Once detected, I get pretty confident that I can take action. And dragons don't really scare me. That much.
But let me stop here with a couple takeaways. This post is definitely "to be continued".
- Takeaway #1: Marketers know it takes multiple exposures to things to make them stick. Same with self improvement.
- Takeaway #2: We are never too old to discover our dragons.
Excerpt from The Mindful Way Through Anxiety by Susan M. Orsillo, PhD. and. Lizabeth Roemer, PhD.