What's eating you? On worry

There's a story about an old tree, wide and tall, centuries in age. All those years it stood firm - it weathered storms, rains, lightning, fierce winds and earthquakes, and still it kept its place. One day a small band of termites arrived, and through a tiny crack began to eat it from the inside. The little crack grew, the termites multiplied, and slowly they drew the tree's strength away, until one day - crash - it split in two and fell to the ground.

Those termites are like our small worries and pressures. They don't look harmful to us, but over time they become a gnawing blight. In life we survive wars and challenges, yet it is precisely the tiny drops of over-worry and anxious thinking that can bring us down.

Worries arise from our imagination, not from reality.

Worry is always tied to fear of the future - what might be, perhaps this way or that. In short, an orchestra of thoughts that creates suffering. Some things are not in our control; and if they are, then gather yourself, examine the situation and take an action that serves you. Don't let worries grow inside you.

Try this

First ask yourself: whose business is this anyway? If it is your problem and it troubles you - find out what can be done and act. And if the worry is for others - offer help or support; beyond that, ongoing worry won't help. Most of the time, in the process of inner inquiry, you'll discover the worry was exaggerated.

And let the body act: bring movement, a walk, a stretch. One of the most striking things about our age is that people spend most of their time in thoughts about reality, instead of being present in reality itself.

And whatever is not in your control - give it room. When you release your grip on worry, out of that quiet a solution or an idea you hadn't seen before will surface.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.