ANXIETY AND WORRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 175, 25 July 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

ANXIETY AND WORRY.

HELPFUL OBSERVATIONS

Horatio W. Dresser makes some practical and helpful observations on "Anxiety and Worry"' in a recent number of the new Church magazine, "Unity." Here arc some extracts from it. It was said of a woman who had attained the age of 100 years: "She never worried." When this can be said of a woman who lived a simple life as a habit, that is, without any special knowledge of the inner life of any particular philosophy, one may well consider what other mental qualities accompanied this freedom from worry. For one thing, this woman probably lived in the present, never anticipating the morrow or next week or next year, save with serenity or contentment. She probably had activities enough to occupy her thoughts and energies, and these occupations undoubtedly brought satisfaction.

"Simple Life a State of Mind." People used' to assume that such a simple life could be lived in the quiet country only; but others have realised that "the simple life is a state of mind." It is not necessary to live on a farm all one's days, in order to live the simple life. Annoyances exist everywhere. The monotony of life on a farm or in a small village would be a greater test to some people than the vicissitudes of the tourist, of putting up with all sorts of conditions in various parts of the world. In any environment, simple or complex, the primary consideration is the way of taking the conditions encountered day by day. Some mothers are worn out ■by the process of rearing two children, while others are serene as mothers of six or eight or ten. Some men drive n car with nervous "anxiety, especially in the perplexing traffic of a city; while others assure us that to drive a car is to find a way to overcome or to avoid such anxiety.

Most of our worries, in the last analysis, pertain either to our own limited welfare or to what we anxiously think we. ought to be doing for the sake of others in order to spare ourselves future trouble. Thus a person on whom others are dependent for support will worry over money matters; that is, trouble over his part in providing money, as if that part were independent of any source of spiritual supply. To lift to the spiritual level one's opportunity of providing for others is to enter the larger world of trust, of dependence on Divine resouces. There is every reason, then, for avoiding those narrow, ing mental states which so readily give rise to worry.

Sameness of Thought. Worry and anxiety are sometimes due to fatigue, and that in turn is due to sameness of thought, to a too constant dwelling on the same things without sufficient recreation or rest. Whenever fatigue settles down on us in this way, it is important that we spring up and do something for somebody, take a day off; change our thoughts. Fatigue puts ns in a state where little things loom large. Fatigue distorts, as fear distorts. What we need is a distant view. We nedd to drop all care, for the time being. To care overmuch is to be worried. Whenever _wc begin to worry, we need another point of view. One may keep the welfare of others in view without permitting their woes, burdens, and tribulations to weigh down one's own spirit. The real source of power is not one's own mere thought, so easily tending to become anxious thought"; it is in the Divine Presence. "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah." "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." To trust in this way is not only to be lifted above fatigue fort, with the change of consciousnc-- which this realisation brings, to f.oneself once more in the larger world of thought. We may then generalise and say that all worry thoughts tend to pull one down into a small mental ■world, and the more anxious and troubled we become the more we take ourselves out of the large and generous current of things which is carrying out the purposes of Spirit. To accept the spiritual current is to realise that whatever it brings is for one's good, hence that there is (literally) nothing to worry about, no real ground for anxiety, fear, doubt, despair, or misery.