Kicking the Worry Habit

Worry is a habit that knocks the support right out from under us. So one of the most "freeing" changes we can make in our lives is to kick the worry habit. Since most habits are learned, it's important for us to ask where we learned to worry.

Joseph was a chronic worrier who hoped he could find relief from depression and insomnia. He said, "I was raised on worry and secondhand smoke, and I inhaled and absorbed the worry as much as I did the smoke".

Joseph explored the often unspoken but nevertheless powerful beliefs his parents had bequeathed. The majority of them were based on the assumptions that life was difficult, money was hard to come by, and God was a stern and punishing father. Joseph learned to believe that it never rained but it poured, there was never enough to go around, and that guilt was the only thing that could prevent him from being "condemned." Is it any wonder that Joseph became a worrier?

The only lasting antidote for chronic worry is faith, faith in the good, faith that the Universal Mystery is for us rather than against us. If we have learned to believe in the unfortunate and hateful, we have the ability to change that and come to believe in goodness and love. I know it's possible because Joseph did it, and so did I. As Joseph was starting to change his belief system, I gave him a little card that read, "Sometimes we have many reasons to be unhappy and not many reasons to be happy. Our task is to be unreasonably happy."

Always be reminded that if you are plagued by the worry habit, simply becoming aware of worry when it overtakes you and deciding to affirm that life is good will set your feet firmly on the road to kicking the worry habit. What we believe is our choice and we can support ourselves by choosing to be faith-filled and happy - even unreasonably so.