Worry is a misuse of imagination. ~Dan Zadra
People have been
nice enough to tell me from time to time that I am creative. Sometimes I think
it’s true. I can look back at some
of the things I’ve made or written or produced over the years and see some satisfactory
creativity there. I do think I
have an active imagination. I know there seems to be a lot going on in my brain
all the time anyway. Now I can’t
really attest to the quality of that activity mind you - I just know that it’s there.
The upside of
imagination is the ability to create fun stuff, make stuff up and generally
provide at least myself with hours of entertainment. The downside is that it is hard sometimes to quiet my
mind. My active imagination can take any concerns or worries I may have and
spin ‘em off into some crazy extreme scenarios pretty quickly. That’s when the
arguments inside my head start with one side telling me how crazy I am to worry
so much and the other side arguing back that “hey, it could happen!”
So what does my over-active
imagination have to do with a lesson I have to learn over and over again? Well, this is a big one for me. Logically I know that worrying about
something that hasn’t happened and might never happen is just a GIANT waste of
time, emotion and imagination.
There’s plenty of trouble that comes into everyone’s life without spending time
looking for or worrying over a problem that isn’t actually knocking at the
door. But sometimes my logic abandons me and I can sure conjure up a big old
scary imaginary monster.
Now in my defense
I had some help learning this skill.
Parents can, after all transfer some of their own neurosis onto their
children. I really have tried my best not to do the same to my own kids (so far
so good on that as far as I can tell). But it is something that I continually
struggle with.
Living with worry
and anxiety is not way to live. I know…I know
this. But I find that worrying is
the emotional equivalent of math for me.
Unless I practice doing it (or not doing it in the case of worrying) on
a regular basis, I just lose the basics.
I do worry though...well, wonder if I'm ever going to actually pass this particular class.
I do worry though...well, wonder if I'm ever going to actually pass this particular class.
2 comments:
Just so you know...
I'm not dead in a ditch.
;-)
Wow, Mel - I totally have this same issue. When I tell my kids some of the scenarios my brain creates they say I'm a crazy woman. They're about right.
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