Understanding Ourselves

I spoke with an older friend this week who “chastised” herself for being such a worrier and I couldn’t help but laugh because the scolding she gave herself sounded very much like myself on occasion as I realize I over worry most of the time. Seeing as this friend of mine is 86, I can’t imagine she will change this trait of her within her lifetime. I haven’t even lived half as long as she has and yet I don’t believe my days of worry are over any time soon.

I could ask the question why we spend so much time worrying but truth be told, I don’t think all of us do. I believe some of us merely float through life without worries while others, spend an over proportionate time worrying. And neither is really wrong or right (unless it begins to impact us in other ways), it just is.

In fact, while I do believe that over worrying can become a problem, I also believe some degree of worry is healthy. It shows we care and depending on what we worry about, it shows us that some things are more important to us than other things or people. In fact, I do believe if we slowed down to really understand ourselves and how we feel, we’d probably be a lot more in tune with who we are. It sounds funny, but it really is easy to just exist on auto-pilot. We all have our sort of routines that at times, don’t require much thought. Stopping to understand the routines, our worries, our thoughts and what goes along with them can provide endless insight.

Happy writing this week!