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Worry

It is in my view reasonable to suppose energy is only transformed in this universe.  It is never destroyed, merely changed, redirected, reshaped, repurposed.

To rid oneself of anxiety, which is to say worry–or what manifests as worry, since the feeling of tension often precedes the thoughts which arise as a direct result and response–it seems to me you need to replace it with something.

And that something, in my view, is the habit of careful planning, consistent diligence in execution, and sufficiently developed reality testing that you recognize accurately 1) what is beyond your control; and 2) that anxiety about the uncontrollable hurts you, and has no effect on the universe.

Several quotes I have used often are one I believe was Voltaire or Montaigne, to the effect of “my life has been filled with terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.”

And it was, I believe, George Bernard Shaw who said something close to “Worry does not rid the future of its terrors, but the present of its pleasures.”

The other shoe may drop.  This is an ever-present possibility.  There is every reason in the world right now to be anxious, scared, on edge and petrified.

But if you would not inflict that on someone else, why inflict it on yourself?

We are here, we all may suppose, to learn the art of living.  And no sane person would ever suggest that living well involves daily bouts of terror and self inflicted intimidation.