Its slated to rain on a very important day in my life.
Of course the first response is worry, right?
Typically it would be. On a day where I need sunlight, have thousands of dollars of equipment moving, have lots of precious things to beatifully display… rain is like the plague.
Or is it?
Today’s expansive design idea is all about worry. Not just why you shouldn’t do it, because we all know that, but also, ideas to get ahead of it. Yes, ahead of it!
We all know worry is a bad thing. Even the most neurotic people ( I have been that person!) know the perils of worry quite well. Some worry about their worrying. (I have been that person, too!)
While reading a fascinating book called The Biology Of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton I got a full-throttle biological immersion in what happens in times of worry. Histamines are released in your brain. Your whole nervous system is affected. Your cells, these very sensitive five trillion or so somewhat invisible particles that comprise your body, are set into all kinds of scurrying motion. We go on the defensive. Suddenly, its not about action… but about reaction.
Worry consumes your nervous system.
Reading this book, incidentally, has given me a further appreciation for the ways that lifestyle affect our wellbeing. If you are looking for reasons to make a lifestyle change and have it stick, I can’t think of a more compelling piece of science-saturated facts and great stories to make a life change that has a real effect.
Here are a few more of the health issues surrounding worry, just to drive the point home that worry is really not good for your health.
The Wire did an interesting piece on worry that touches on the points of worry that are biological:
” As worriers destroy their personal lives, they put themselves at risk for other un-fun health problems. Notice how your heart feels like its moving a million miles a minute as you obsess over tomorrow’s PowerPoint presentation? Worrying specifically, compared to other types of stress, increases your heart rate, a study in the Journal of Behavior Medicine finds. Another links worrying to heart disease, “exaggerated activity in the cingulate cortex during mental stress may generate excessive rises in blood pressure that may place some individuals at a greater risk for heart disease.”
It can also make you physically ill–headaches, nausea, dizziness, and twitching are just some of the possible responses that WebMD lists.”
Now, to take this a step further, lets talk about worry and the idea of flowing energy. If you are breezing through a day feeling free, everything falls into place. Now, you think, as you are about to get on a plane “Did I leave the oven on before I left my house?” A simple thought like left unmanaged that can help to make a bunch of things fall apart. You drop your phone. You are too scattered to think of what to do. You can’t figure out where the gate is for your flight. You feel dizzy. The house can burn up. You start frantically calling friends who don’t even have a key to your house to calm you down…
But you could have called your landlord if you rent… or a neighbor with a key… and have them check.
And if those weren’t options, you could have come up with other solutions.
But the worry can literally STOP the flow. When things get stagnant, nothing good happens.
Worry can even create problems that don’t exist.
So, how do you manage a situation like this?
Get ahead of your worries.
The minute you have a worry thought come in, take an action. Action creates solutions. Stopping in your tracks creates problems.
I have been emailing and brainstorming solutions since I saw this morning’s weather report. If its going to rain, this is going to be the most creative and spectacular rainy day shoot ever…. because I am getting ahead of it.
What can you do to get ahead of your own worry?
You might create a ritual to immediately calm yourself down. A few minutes of deep breathing or meditation puts you into solution-mode and does not allow your nerous system to get taken over by stress hormones.
Communicating makes it better. You can reach out and tell people you are working with that you need help… You can tell people your concerns. I was once in such a “bad news” relationship that looked glossy on the surface. I neglected to speak up about all my concerns about this person and, instead, sunk into my own pattern of deep worry that kept me from sleeping for months. (Yes: months!) It was such a cofusing time, and the worry stopped me from finding clarity. When I finally spoke up, the relationship went up in instant flames. It was the absolute best thing ever to be rid of it, though in my state of worry every emotion felt too heightened to see it clearly…
Create a new habit. Worry is an emotional-chemical habit. Can you think of something better to do, instead? When I was terribly worried about my health after a really crazy illness, I started drawing in place of worrying. It was really incredible to watch my doodles evolve as my body came back together. I really believe those drawings really helped me.
Can you go for a jog, make some art, dance around the house, do some energy healing…? anything but letting this feeling take you over again and again.
And get ahead of your worry. If you are trying to control an outcome or create a great outcome, instead of being an ineffectual shell of yourself lost in worry, see how you can get ahead of it. How can you prepare instead of panic? And I don’t mean “prepare for the worst” I mean “prepare for the best.”
The more you can stay in action and prepare for things, the more you can turn the worry instinct into something positive. If your worry is chronic, part of preparing for your days may be reading some science or some spirituality, practicing more self love or even doing guided visualizations. The Internet has everything you need. Google, explore, test, try… That alone will keep you too busy to worry!
There’s no reason to let worry take you over. As hard as it is to see right now at times, things are perfectly as they should be, no matter what is happening. How they go next is something you have a hand in creating. Bring it your best- not your most terrified- self. I know you can. Believe me, if I can do this I think anyone can!
The 30 Day Negativity Detox is a commitment to happy-making, mirror-polishing, life-lifting and simple space shifting for 30 days. It’s loaded with lots of actions (some you may know for sure even if you’ve never fully practiced them, some you’ve likely never seen or heard of…!) that can help you detox from your own negative stuff, uncover more of your greatness and light, and see happiness everywhere you look…! There’s feng shui, there’s life-shifting, there’s lots of creativity… and there’s incredible happiness waiting.
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And you can start right HERE! I’m doing the first 30 Days with you, so let’s get started!!!
xoxoxo
Dana
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I always clean for 5-10 minutes when I feel worried about something. I get something small (but meaningful) accomplished and feel like I am right back in the game and am able to reassess whatever it is I am worrying about.
maggie
http://www.shopean.etsy.com