"This Week"
by the
Bahrain Meditation Centre

13^th May, 2006

Kicking The Habit


It is the most common daily mental activity. It is the greatest misuse of
mental energy. It is a complete waste of time. And it may even kill. It's
called worry.

It's good to worry isn't it? Worry shows you care doesn't it? It means you
are cleverly anticipating the future.. yes? No, no and no! Worry is
anxiety based on fiction. It is 'fantasized catasprophising'. It is a
series of negative thoughts which disempowers the natural creativity of your
consciousness, and it may eventually sabotage your physical digestive
system. Why does worry thinking affect our digestive processes in
particular? Perhaps it's because when the fantasy of the catastrophe is
held up against the light of reality, it is revealed for what it is,
complete unreality, and is therefore hard to swallow! However, as we invest
our belief in our home made stories of the worst possible outcome, we
stimulate the overproduction of certain chemicals in our bodies.

Winston Churchill once said near the end of his life. "When I look back on
all the words I have read, I remember the story of the man who said on his
death bed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life that never happened"

So what is worry? It is the regurgitation of a negatively perceived past
projected into the future. It is the dredging up of memories of hurt,
rearranged into an imaginary tale of conflict or loss still to come.

And yet despite most people acknowledging worry as a waste of time and
energy, it is still one of the most common lessons we learn from our
parents. The prevailing myth which is handed down from generation to
generation is 'it's good to worry, it shows you care'. Which of course is
nonsense! Worry is fear and care is love, and fear and love are polar
opposites. If you stop for a moment and become aware of why you worry about
someone else you may also find it is motivated by selfishness - you are
really worried for yourself. You are worried about how you will feel if
something bad happens to someone else. In fact you are already feeling it!

Worry thinking is simply a learned habit, an addiction that is fed by a
toxic daily diet of bad news, unfortunate events and tales of personal
traumas of others. Don't Worry Be Happy was the title of a hit song a few
years ago. For many that is not easy, as worry has become a
mental/emotional drug and just saying 'be happy' is a threat to that drug.
Besides, many people think they are quite happy. worrying! Do you?

Worry is also a subtle avoidance of now. It is an escape into a negative
future so that the reality of the present does not have to be fully faced
and dealt with now. And yet, we can only find peace here and now, we can
only live with love here and now. We can only be fully present and
available for others in the here and now. Worry is absence. To be free of
the worry habit we may have to ask ourselves why we don't want to be here
now, why do we broadcast our run to the future and proudly stake our claim
to be prophets of doom and clairvoyants of gloom?

Question: What percentage of your thoughts are worry thoughts and what
percentage actually happen

Reflection: Don't Worry Be Happy - what is the difference between worry and
happy - make notes

Action: At the end of the day today make a simple list of all things you
worried about, then next to each item write down what you will actually do.

Om Shanti
(I am a peaceful soul)

 Tel: +973-17-712 545, meditate@batelco.com.bh, www.bahrainmeditationcentre.org
Bahrain Meditation Centre is administered by B.K.W.S.U. (visit: www.bkwsu.org.uk)