Growing up I was a chronic worrier. I thought everyone worried. It was part of my daily routine. I would get up every morning and find something to worry about. That is, until I got married and learned that worrying is a choice. Over time I learned that worrying was a bad habit and decided one day (late 1990’s) to “kick the worrying habit”. I made a conscious choice to stop making worrying a daily practice. So imagine my surprise when I woke up Tuesday morning and I caught myself worrying at 6am in the morning. And when I mean worrying, I mean… Worrying Excessively! My neck and shoulders were in pain and with every worrying thought, the pain got more and more intense. I took 2 aspirin and when that didn’t stop the pain, I knew that I needed to take a different approach, a more holistic approach. Let’s face it… Worry became an uninvited guest sitting on my shoulders kicking and screaming for attention. So I created a Worry Checklist… 1. Are these my emotions/thoughts or someone else’s emotions/thoughts? Being a highly sensitive intuitive, I’ve learned to always ask this simple question first as it saves a lot of time. I was able to identify my worry story in less than 5 seconds, so I knew it was mine. However, after speaking to a few friends this week, it appears that everyone might be worrying more these days. So maybe it’s a mix of my worry and everyone else’s worry sitting on my shoulders. 2. What triggered me? My sister. My sister has been struggling with mental health issues for the past 10+ years. On Saturday she took a step backwards and as a result she started down the slippery slope of crossing boundaries and expecting everyone to drop everything and take care of her needs first. Her behavior triggered my... “Old Responsibility Story – It is my responsibility to fix everything!” You know the story. The story where you tell yourself that you have to put everyone's needs before your own...AGAIN! 3. What is Worrying asking me to do? What really needs to be done? I needed to get all of these worrying thoughts out of my head and onto a piece of paper. So I did a brain dump and I made a list of what options could be done short term, mid-term, and long-term to resolve the issues with my sister. I then wrote a letter to the Universe expressing my worry and then put the letter into my “Worry Box", asked the Universe for help, and simply just walked away. I didn't take any action. And you know what happened? Everything self-corrected itself within a few days. I didn’t need to “jump in and take responsibility and fix everything"! Even the pain in my shoulders went away and hasn’t been back since. Lessons learned from worrying… When worrying shows up as the uninvited guest at your doorstep, treat it like the daily weather report. The daily weather report tends to never be accurate, but it gives you a general idea of how to tentatively make a plan for the future and then wait to see what happens before taking action. For example:
So next time Worry visits you, what are you going to do? Say Goodbye Worry...Hello Peace Watch my video below for some quick additional shamanic tips on how to let go of worry. MARCH IN-PERSON EVENTS
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Robin RosenstielStories to inspire you on your own journey to rediscovering joy in your life. Archives
July 2024
Categories |