How to Understand Why We Worry

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I've always been somewhat of a worry-wort and at times worrying has gotten the best of me. When any thought or feeling is on repeat for too long, its my cue that I am not aligned to my authentic self and I begin a process of inquiry and self reflection. The best method of inquiry is journaling. So, I took to my journal and began asking a series of questions, which I asked my inner guidance to help me answer. Before I begin I always set the intention: To help me see this differently, to help me see with love. Below is the 'conversation'.

I wrote at the top of the page:

What is Worrying?

Worrying is a sate of non-allegiance to what is the truth of who you are. It's a denial of your belief in all things possible. It's a limiting thought purely based upon your present thought patterns about something. Those thought patterns are purely based upon old experiences in which you've felt unease and uncertain about what you would like the favorable outcome to be. When in fact even the favorable outcome is just a prediction and reflection of what your mind tells you need to be at peace, joy and happy.

It's all just a game for your mind. To prevent you from letting go. Stopping you with future based thought patterns from embracing the now. In the now, worry can't exist. Worry is a projection. A projection of your mind. It identifies with lack and scarcity as it pertains to the desired outcome. The mind thinks if it doesn't get the desired outcome it wants then, it is of no use - a failure and good for nothing person.

Worrying is an emotional build up of thoughts that are of lack and stuckness, which creates a blockage in the body with-holding energy from flowing with ease.

Your direct relationship to worry is that you become the worrier as you embody what the feelings of worry bring forth within you. By doing so you create a future in the now, that hasn't yet unfolded. You live as if though the future is happening now, which then causes even more worry, conflict and anxiety within you.

To worry is to feel disconnected from your Self. Your Self that already has the answers. Worrying is a lack of trust in the process, within your Self and the Universe. It leaves you feeling that you have to figure it out all alone and unless you do, you are doomed. This tension prevents you from allowing. It with-holds you from truly letting go and releasing all that is not serving you so, you may invite and welcome a new perspective to show a different way of seeing and being.

Worrying + Uncertainty

Worry happens when we are unsure of the outcome and as human beings we want to be able to calculate and be certain of everything. Where there is uncertainty there is worry. Worry and uncertainty will always be present together. When we worry we are uncertain of what to do, what our next step should be and this creates fog, chaos and unease in the mind or as anxious emotions felt in the body.

When you are worried its because you're uncertain. You think by worrying - a chaotic way of trying to rationalize the uncertainty you feel and by trying to think of everything you can do so you don't have to be present with uncertainty.

But...

What if you accept uncertainty? Then, there goes worry. By accepting and surrendering to the worry it no longer has fuel, fire beneath its wings, it falls, sinks and goes.

What if we need to just understand our relationship to uncertainty and begin to be comfortable with it? The only thing certain about life is death, everything else is just uncertainty.

How to be Comfortable with Uncertainty (when life is full of uncertainty)?

Uncertainty is what the mind calls something it cannot grasp onto with the physicality of existence. Uncertainty is the mind's way of keeping the future present in the now. It's the mind's way of distracting us from living in the now because in the now uncertainty cannot exist.

Where there is uncertainty there is a void - a need to know so we can be prepared. The mind always wants to be prepared. What if the mind's job is just to know that the future it is trying to prepare for is yet to be?

YET: waiting for the arrival of; wishful thinking of an outcome that will potentially be of joy and peace.

To live in the present you have to step away from your mind. Your mind cannot and will not live in the present, which is the now. Only your Self can.

Where there is great uncertainty (worry) there is an energy pull in which you give up your power to that which is uncertain. Once you reclaim your power and accept the uncertainty, a solution will emerge. Now, you will be able to see the solution because you aren't distracted, preoccupied or consumed by your thinking.

Why can't the mind surrender?

As long as you're identified with your mind, ego, there is surrender waiting to happen. Your soul doesn't surrender. Its forever in a surrendered state. When your mind surrenders or when you surrender your mind to your heart then, your soul can step forth and guide you.

How can the mind surrender?

The mind is threatened by not being in control. As long as the mind is in control it has power. Surrender, to the mind, means to give up its power. So why would the mind do that? It wouldn't. It won't. All the mind has power over is you - your Self - or it thinks it does. So as long as you are identified as your mind, it has power and control over you . In meditation you will realize that you are not your mind, but in fact a great intelligent source that doesn't need power or control to exist. Its existence is not dependent on anything. It is just awareness. And when you really become aware in your knowing of this energy, you will understand your Self and that which you call God - Universe.

This is where the 'conversation' ended. I really do believe we can understand the nature of our worries, a projection of uncertainty. Then, we can truly surrender our minds to our hearts. In doing so we ask this question: What is the solution? Not what is the problem?

Tell me in the comments below what you think? Do you agree there is a connection between worry and uncertainty?

Be patient. Be gentle. Be kind.