How Not to Be Such a WorryWart or a Hamster on a Wheel for that Matter
March 21, 2021
Worry and Anxiety… 😧 … But Why?
I hear this all the time…
“I worry more than most people.”
Do we not have anything better to do with our time than to sit around and ponder the endless possibilities of what might happen? 🤷♂️
🤔 Perhaps. 💭
For some of us, we are so bored and unkept with hobbies, creative pursuits, or opportunities to serve others that we have unresolved energy looking for an escape.
Imagine a hamster wheel. You are the hamster. Worry is the wheel.
Anxiety is the feeling of exhaustion after running for miles without moving forward.
Anxiety is the exhaustion after a tireless time sprinting in the worry wheel.
It gets us nowhere when we worry. Nowhere.
We don’t move forward, at all.
It exhausts us, endlessly running day and night, worrying without reason.
We’re not here because someone told us to necessarily, but because it’s become so culturally common and accepted for us to run on this worry wheel.
But, just because something is normally accepted, doesn’t mean it should be normal.
Can I get an amen? 🙏
Why worry? Why climb up on the microcosmic hamster wheel roller coaster that sends us on a spinning ride of exhausting defeat?
Here’s your reminder that you need not worry…
and you can actually do something about it!
You don’t have to be a hamster. You don’t have to run on a wheel.
You don’t even have to be a “gerbil” or guinea pig if you prefer that version of the same monotonous rat race we all seem to stride towards.
A simple equation to simplify worry and anxiety.
Amount of Time to Worry x Amount of Uncertainty Felt
= Total Expressed Experience of Anxiety
Mathematically it might look something more like this:
…….. [ “T” subscript “w” …. multiplied by …. “U” superscript “F” ] …….
A few more variables that impact our worry and stress levels:
Diet - what you eat, not the program that you follow; climate - not the weather ☔️
Moon 🌙 Cycles - yes, believe it or not the magnetic 🧲 pull of the moon can impact our mood and sleep
Sleep - this one is more obvious; less sleep typically correlates to dec. mood, inc. depression and anxiety 💤
Faith - Where you place your hope, faith, and trust in is often a correlated factor for resilience as well, whether that’s for living through big-world traumas like tsunami wiping away your coastal village or battling a typically heartbreaking disease; do you surrender your anxieties you cannot control, or hold on to them more tightly as things grow more and more unknown and chaotic?
Social Life - social support may be one of the most easily overlooked areas of healthcare; we all need a community; we all need a village, not a Zoom gallery.
Locus of Control - Do you feel powerless in the things you worry about? Are you actually able to change or influence the things you spend most of your time concerned about? Do you know what you care about most? 🧐
Information Overload - You can only handle so much, and each person’s “load” they can carry is different. Overload with too much news, and you can’t even remain calm enough to gently decide which Peanut Butter to grab off the shelf the next time you go to the grocery store zoo. 📲
There’s so much more to this equation than what I can talk about within a weekend newsletter, but over the course of an in-depth conversation, an open heart dialogue, I bet we could put together a solid plan and beautiful opportunity for you to let go of those worries. A couple tips:
Remember you are safe 💚
Remember your breath - breathe in, hold, breathe out
Recognize what you can (and cannot) control 🤲
Remember what you would really rather be doing by building a task list, a dream travel or bucket list, some sort of actionable journey list for fun things you want to pursue instead of letting your mind stay busy before you let yourself climb up on that hamster wheel 📝
Remember all the times, the past times, throughout the history of your life when you made it through and the fact that you’ve made it through - oh so much, and you’re nearly guaranteed to be able to get through this moment and time, to push through whatever you’re currently worried about ⏳
Remember how to have fun, how to release your inner child, how to enjoy, delight, and embrace the unknowns of each day. Kids be like: “So I have to mask up at school now, ight Mom, no sweat. I get to go back! Let’s go!” 🙌
Stressed and Overwhelmed these days? Have no fear, for you CAN make a change in your lifestyle, your mindset, your day-to-day habits that have a positive impact on your health, resolving your anxiety and reducing your worries overall.
Looking for help in your personal health journey, for a chance to learn more about how to resolve your long-standing worries and anxieties?
Ready to hop off that hamster wheel and set yourself free from worry and anxiety?
I want to challenge you to go ahead and drop a line in our Community Facebook page to openly share about your top 2 worries, and the WHY behind WHY you think you worry about these things most? 🤝
Trust me, you’re not alone in your worries. Through my years of talking to hundreds, probably thousands of people from all walks of life in this world, I’ve never met anyone who said “boy, I wish I could worry more.”
💫
Everyone seems to wish upon a star for a chance to worry less, but we seem to disastrously fail at accomplishing this goal we suggest we’d like to achieve.
It’s time we take action and collaboration to support one another in our missions of health don’t you think?
Here’s your encouragement this week to identify a bit more about your life stressors, worries, and roots of your anxieties. It’s time to climb down from that hamster wheel and go explore the jungle, the wonderful world around us with joy and creativity.
Matthew 6:34
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.”