Worry is a funny emotion. I would argue worry is a myriad of emotions—anxiety, fear, stress, sadness, uncertainty, doubt, and so on. It is such a complex emotion. I wonder why then it is so easy for people to say, “Stop worrying.” When I hear that phrase, I think to myself that it isn’t as easy as putting a stop to worry—without understanding the complex web of emotions it really is.

We worry about many things in life. Worry about your job stability, your boss treating you unfairly, worry about your finances, worry about catching the flight, worry about sounding perfect when talking to others, worry of strangers, worry that you may slip & fall and injure yourself… it goes on and on.

It is such an overpowering thing, worry. But I have slowly been realizing and seeing worry for what it really is.

Worry sprouts from our desire to control things—things that are often outside of our control.

To put things in perspective, we humans have a standard life expectancy (an average of 70 years if you are lucky). There are places on Earth with high infant mortality, war- and disaster-struck places. So hitting 70 is not guaranteed. With this “fact,” I asked myself: what do I worry about? If someone does not like me, or if things don’t go my way—will I really care when my time has come to kick the bucket? Probably not.

There is a saying in India – “you come with nothing & you will go with nothing”. When I heard this as a kid, I did not think much of it. But as someone in her late 30s, I realize it is such a powerfully liberating statement. It quite literally means that you come into this world with nothing & go back down to the Earth as nothing but dust. And dust & dirt are what we all are—I mean this in a very admirable way.

We are part of the Earth, we are part of this universe. We are nothing but timeless stardust. I take solace in knowing that when my time has come to kick the bucket, I will proverbially be one with the universe.

This realization gives me energy to do things that are right for me, that are right for my body and mind. After all, how lucky are we that we have this chance to be thinking & reasoning humans?

I realized that when you do right by you, you can then do right by others. You will know the things that take energy from you & the things that give you energy—you decide which way you want to go.

So worry, although a complex emotion, is an emotion based on survival—fight or flight. We no longer have to run from panthers or bears to survive, so guess what we have misled ourselves to run from? Self-constructed worry.

Your children will turn out okay—stop worrying. Your presentation at work will be okay—you will live. Stop worrying. You will meet your weight goals—start exercising & stop worrying. You will die one day—so stop worrying.

And start living—with an open mind, with an open heart, judgment-free. Because nobody knows what will happen after you are dead—there are beautiful religious stories written by people about life after death, but no one knows for sure. So when in your life NOW is the only thing guaranteed, do you want to live in worry or do you want to live—fully?

I was faced with this choice, and I remind myself every day that life is meant to be lived and loved.

Stop imposing preconceived so-called standards on others and let people flourish the way they are meant to. The way they want to.

Cheers!

Seek your adventure — Alisha out!