Managing our Worrisome Thoughts
Diyanat Ali
Experiential Educator, Team Building & Outbound Facilitator, Leadership & Transformational Coach
Many of our fears and anxieties come from thinking what could possibly go wrong in future, an imagination that becomes cyclical and causes suffering even before anything imagined has actually taken place.
What if I fall ill?. What if a loved one falls I'll?. What if the situation does not improve. How will I earn money. How will I and my family survive. Etc, etc.
These are thoughts that happen in the mind on their own and maybe valid. however the suffering starts when one identifies and gets hooked into the cyclical and obsessive nature of these thoughts.
There is an underlying assumption in the mind that if I am not worrying about these thoughts, I am not controlling my life, I am not safe and I need to do something about it. However these thoughts are imagined in the future, there is nothing to address now except dealing with fear and anxiety coming from the cyclical nature of these worrisome thoughts. Just like its difficult to find a black cat in a dark room especially if there is no cat.
Since these worrisome thoughts are automatic they can't be stopped by willpower or distractions or trying to find a solution to an imagined situation. The way is to allow these thoughts and see them for what they are "perceived imagination" and not identify or get attached to them.
One can exercise choice of getting grounded and centered to ones surroundings, breath and the body to choose to direct ones awareness to the inner stillness and presence and come to the "Now" moment . In this still and now moment of awareness there are no imagined problems to deal with and the mind rests.
Know that the power of inner presence has immense capability and strength to deal with anything that may come up in the here and now as when it happens and one can continue to take self care with practical and existential matters with awareness and a calm inner presence.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. - Victor Frankl
Stay in awareness, in inner stillness and presence.
Facilitator: Enterprising Boldly, Delivering Powerfully
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