“If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?” Shantideva
In evolutionary terms, the need for humans to experience the feeling of worry, has arisen out of the need to be held accountable for out actions and to act on situations before they get out of hand. Then and now we worried about what food we had to eat? Worried about neighboring tribes attacking us? (Or in the modern’ world worrying about what the neighbors think!) Worried that someone is ill? These feeling of anxiety led us to take action, and eliminate these stressful feelings derived from worry. So we can act before we become starving from lack of food or before we are being physically attacked. Instead of acting when nearly incapacitated, it makes sense for our survival that we act when we have the chance to. It is for this reasons that we worry.
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey!” Barbara Hoffman
Today many of us are living in a world that is vastly different to that which out ancestors inhabited thousands of years before us. Our physiology adapted to a world that was different to the one we live in now. The last few thousands years and especially the last century have seen enormous changes. Evolution does not respond to changes as quickly as we have made of the world around us. As a result our emotional circuitry system is out of date, and not ideal for the world in which we now live on.
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” Epictetus
Worrying creates unnecessary stress. Can disrupt your ability to think clearly, and if prolonged can become detrimental to your health. Don’t worry blindly. Always find the root cause of your worry and act on what is bothering you. After that rationally dissolve it, by recognizing you have done all you can and as a result worrying serves no beneficial purpose.
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” Leo F. Buscaglia
In this article we have explored the reasons for worrying and why it is important to keep
ourselves in a comfortable balance between being too care-free and from being overtly sensitive to the worries of life.
