Worrying about problems?

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need for worrying?  If you cannot solve it, what is the use of worrying?
-Shantideva (8th century Indian Buddhist scholar) (https://www.quotes.net/quote/21508)


Do you have a tendency to worry?

 I know that in my own personal life I still have a tendency to worry.  No matter how evolved I become or how I realize the senseless nature of it...I still worry.  Someone once tried to console me by telling me that it was a mothers 'perogative ' to worry.  I think it is a mother's curse to do so.  :)

Worry as far as I am concerned...is a senseless and damaging emotion to get caught up in.

Do you know where the word comes from? 

Worry comes from the word 'wirion'.  In the 14th century, that word translated to refer to what a wild animal might do to a human being: bite, tear into the throat thusly strangling or choking.  Pretty gruesome eh?  The German translation of its cousin 'wurgon', meant to strangle. Worry, then, comes,from a very violent connotation.  Its literal meaning has tamed down quite a bit over the centuries but it still is a nasty word with a nasty experience to offer.

As dramatic as the origin of the word is...it carries some subtle references into our understanding of the word and the world today.

'Worry' is pretty violent on the mind, isn't it?  Like a wild animal out of control and let loose by ego it can bite into our psyches ripping away peace and strangling our life energy away, can't it?  It can literally leave one fighting for breath or choking on a future anticipation of negative outcome.

Worry isn't nice!

Does it serve a purpose?  For the ego it does...keeps us out of the present moment and focused on some disaster in the probable  future. It keeps us where ego wants us...in our minds.

To the real Self...it serves no purpose.  No amount of worry has the power to change the outcome of an event.

But that is why we tend to worry, isn't it?  We have this idea that it will make things right for us...if we worry hard enough somehow we will stop something bad from happening.  How bizarre is that.?

Worry serves the ego by wasting a valuable connection to the moment...it does no good to Self.

Still, we worry.

I love the sage advice shared by the Dali Llama in the link listed below...and from an 8 th century Buddhist monk who truly understood the senseless nature of worry. If we can solve a so called 'problem' or change what appears to be a problematic situation, we do not need to worry, do we?  If we can't change it with worry, why waste time worrying? 

Watch the eyes and smile on the Dali Llama as he speaks...a man who lost so much yet remains so peaceful and calm.  Does he look worried?

Maybe if we truly get it...that worry is senseless...we will be more likely to say to ego when it sends it our way..."No thanks!" or better still maybe we will be able to see the playful pup within the beast and tame it and play with it before we send it home.

All is well in my world.

References

Online Etymology Dictionary: worry https://www.etymonline.com/word/worry

The Positive Encourager https://www.thepositiveencourager.global/the-dalai-lama-being-calm-in-the-face-of-adversity/