WHY DO WE WORRY?

Otago Witness, Issue 3028, 27 March 1912, Page 72

WHY DO WE WORRY?

There is nothing that so many people suffer from, nothing that so few people try to cure themselves of, as the habit of worrying. There is no credit in being able to worry. It’s as easy as falling off a log. Anybody can do it. Any old thing does to worry about. You could even worry because you hadn’t anything to worry about, and so felt lonely and “out of it." All vou need is just to "get into the swing of it, and then, no matter how fortunate vou are, how rich, or handsome, or miserable you are, you can find something to worry about, uf course, I left out “ happy ” and “ healthv ” among the possible things, because if you worry you cannot be happy, and if you worry you cannot be truly healthy, mentally and physically. There’s a kink somewhere. Yet there are very few people who don’t worry—not one, perhaps, in a hundred grown-up people. And what good does it do? We can make ourselves old in spirit, plain (“ ugly ” if you like) in face, depressing to others and a burden to ourselves, by simply cultivating the habit of worry; and when we have achieved these ‘unenviable results, what benefit is there to set against them? Absolutely none. Nothing is altered by worrying except yourself, and you are weakened in your very struggle against the misfortune that you fear. I do believe that every one of us in the course of our lives will be able to say, as we leave youth behind us, two things—one, that no sorrow or misfortune has befallen us that might not have been worse: the other, that we ba\e su fered more from our own fears than God’s realities. And yet—l say it in all sympathy and understanding—how hard it is not to worry! , , Oulv those who love much, whose channeb of sympathy and affection flow deep and strong among family and friends, can understand to the full how difficult to always drive out fear with faith. Yet think for a moment. Does not our tendency to fear not only weaken ourselves, but those for whom we fear? We never know until a few years ago that there were waves of air as well as waves of ocean, and that those strange waves, invisible pulsations, might be made the mysterious messengers of uns|K>ken words which we now familiarly call “wireless.” May it not be true that every doubtin'' fear for friend, or lover, or child, creates a weakening, malign influence on the delicate ethical atmosphere which surrounds and penetrates —we know not | U)W —the soul of each one of ns? Does not Lowell say: Tho thinf? w« lons for, that wo are, For one transcer.dant moment. Still through our paltry stir and strife Glows down the wished Ideal, And Lon sins moulds in clay what Life Leaves in tho marble Real. Proof that he, this student of men in all their moods, realised the power of the spiritual over tho material, the mind over the body. And if in one thing, why not in another? Doubt and fear are the two parents of worry ; therefore have nothing to do with either, because it just rests with ourselves. It is FOR YOU TO SAY whether you will worry or not. No one else can stoji you ; wise friends and dear friends may help, but it is the individual will, working from within, which must be the motive power to turn out the worry microbe, and keep it out. We all desire to be happy, but most of us cannot be happy unless the happiness of those we love is, or seems to be, fairly assured. And as we can rarely see all those affairs comfortably and* plainly written on the wall . . . we worry. The desire for happiness is the simplest, most natural thing in tho world, but,

granted we are not happy, will any amount of worrying over it make us so? How is it, I wonder, that sensible, practical men and women all over the world at this very moment are killing themselves with worry-thougti they know perfectly well that no amount of worry will arrest the evil they fear in the future, or soften the evil they mourn in the past? WHAT ARE WE TO DO? We are to develop our will power by exercising it; and exercising it in two opposite directions, which seems a pretty big order. But the worry habit is a big thing; if given way to, it not only mars our own health and happiness, but casts a shadow over all our household. Think of the worrying mother, the worrying wife, the worrying maid! We all know them, “Marthas” of the worst type, troubled about many things, quite unselfishly perhaps, living for others all the time, and yet nothing less than a curse to the very people they long to bless. In fact some reasonably selfish person who has a sunny outlook on life, and is content to leave some few things to Providence to manage, makes home far happier. ‘But,” you say, “I cannot help worrying : it is my nature.” All the more need then to improve upon Nature. Nature will often stand a lot of improving on psychical as well as physical grounds, and when one feels that you have “a worrying nature,” it’s time to improve and reform Nature. tielf-control is the power that you must rely upon. It Jo already weakened by worry. Never mind, the cure will only be a little longer— that is all. Try to cultivate a cheerful hue of thought and the habit of faith. Refuse to harbour fear and doubt. Every time you succeed in driving out a miserable doubt of yourself, your work, your beloved, and install instead a feeling of faith and hope, you have won a victory. Every time you refuse to brood over possible troubles and difficulties, and force yourself to enter with cheerfulness into the difficulties of others, you have won a victory. Every time you content yourself with doing the work that lies close to your hand and concentrate your mind as you do it on some glad thought of beauty in Nature or in books, you have won a victory, and your will power is stronger—you are nearer being mistress of yourself, captain of your own soul. Think sunshine, health, cheerfulness; think yourself able to help others, not •only to-day and to-morrow, but always, until the faith thought and habit have driven the fear thought and habit out into the wilderness of forgotten things. For we may be sure, however else we may bo able to help ourselves, or comfort others, it will not be by worrying! EMMELINE.