"I can't really say how long it took. It was more like a series of life lessons. I spent way too much time living in fear, worry, stress. It drained my energy and stole my joy."
How I did it: I came to believe that worry and stress are slow suicide. It is clinically proven that negative habits of thinking release chemicals into your body that do damage to your health over the long term. Even if modern medicine is able to keep you alive, your quality of life is poor when you are constantly poisoning yourself through worry and chronic stress.
- One thing I did was to learn to accept the impermanence of everything. I have lost two siblings, so I understand that now is all you have. Treat everyone as though this may be the last time you get to interact with them, because it very well may.
- Another tool I was discovered to deal with the dreaded "what if's", was the response. "So, what? I'll handle it." I even used this as the title for one of my speeches in Toastmasters. You have handled everything that has ever happened in your life to date, whether you liked it or not, and you will be able to handle anything else that comes your way.
- Also, I learned that most of the things you worry about never happen. So, you have spent time worrying about it, releasing all these damaging chemicals into your body and feeling like crap, and it doesn't happen, anyway. You borrowed trouble, and the repayment plan was the loss of your joy and the damage to your body. Not worth the tradeoff, is it?
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Dec 22, 2008, 06:49AM PST
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