Thursday, February 5, 2009

Therapy Thursday

Check it out and feel free to join in! Today's subject is "worry." What do you worry about? Do you take action on those worries? How do you manage the negativity of worry? Do you find that worrying can encourage you to accomplish things? What would you like to change about worrying? How do you intend to do so? What do I worry about? Money. I grew up in a home that struggled financially so being able to pay the bills, feed the kids, and still have some fun is important to me. I also don't want money to be a burden to my kids but I do want them to learn fiscal responsibility. My kids. I worry about too many thing to list when it comes to my kids. Health, how they are developing, how they interact with the world, their safety... My job. Even though I'd love to be a stay at home mom, if you refer back to that first worry, money comes from having a job. There are a lot of good things that come from my job- health insurance for me and the kids, a pay check, a retirement plan. Because of that paycheck, we are more financially secure in covering our expenses but are also able to save money for college and vacations and have memberships to the Museum or Zoo or other fun things. Do I take action on these worries? I try to recognize what is and what is not in my control. Things that I can do something about, I do to the best of my ability. I work to not let worry run my life. How do I manage the negativity of worry? This is part of where my faith comes into play. One of the beautiful things about my relationship with God is that when life gets overwhelming, when I find myself bogged down with worry, I can turn it over to Him. It doesn't make the problem go away. But it gives me hope that there is a better plan, a different path, that I hadn't considered before. Do I find that worry encourages me to accomplish things? Sometimes. I guess something negative like worry can be a driving force to get things done. But at the same time... how well am I going to do something if there is a negative base behind it? If I am accomplishing something out of love and goodness, it will come out better, right? What do I want to change about worrying and how do I intend to do so? I don't really feel like I let worry creep into too much control over my life or let it weigh me down too much. So my plan would be to keep doing what I'm doing... keep relying on my faith to see me through. Keep turning to my support system to help me see things more clearly. My bottom line is that I don't want to live my life burdened by a bunch of "what if's" that may never come to pass. Instead, I want to enjoy each moment as it comes. Be in the now. Be here. And that leads me to being the best me (wife, mom, friend, etc) that I can be. Your turn!

4 comments:

Boozy Tooth said...

Gosh, everyone knows worry is a useless emotion and it takes so much energy away from things we actually can do or change, but worry is also one of those automatic things. We have to work hard to keep the demons of worry away from our positive thoughts and energies. Easier said than done, I know.

That said, I most worry about losing Larry or one of my kids, or one of my family members. We wake up every day and just assume it will end well. And if it doesn't? If our worlds are turned upside down in an instant? How would we cope? Where would we turn? How would we move forward?

My greatest fear is in losing someone precious - and if you live long enough, it will happen.

So I work hard on appreciating every moment I have with my loved ones and treating letting them know how much they mean to me. ther is comfort in that.

Garret said...

I worry too.

I worry I may become pregnant and forced to feed another mouth.
I worry I may visit Canada and get trapped there. I don't speak Canadian! Troublesome.

Garret

Anonymous said...

i worry constantly too. its something that i'm really trying to work on. i've been taking a lot of deep breaths and counting to ten to stop it, and so far, it seems to be working.

Jason, as himself said...

I worry about my oldest daughter. When will the next shoe drop? When will she figure life out? I worry about how long I will worry about her!

And there isn't a whole lot I can do about it.