The Absurdity of Worrying

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 3, 1 September 1926, Page 62

The Absurdity of Worrying

The sufferings of mankind may be divided into two classes, mental and physical, and of the former a good half is occasioned by worrying over things which, in all probability, will never occur. “Oh dear ! I do get so nervous on these foggy nights,” says Joan’s mother. “I’m so afraid Joan will meet with an accident. 1 never have a moment’s peace till she comes in”: and she works herself up into a state bordering on panic, which lasts until Joan walks in, about an hour late, rather tired and cross with the long time she has spent in the stuffy railway carriage. Worrying seems to be more or less a constitutional habit. There are some happy-go-lucky people who never worry about anything. It simply docs not occur to them to do so.

Waste Of CNferve 'Power '“po worry over the past is purely -*■ aiid simply a waste of nerve power, since as soon as a thing is past no amount of worrying can alter it. To worry about the futurethe things that may happen—seems almost more ridiculous, and yet we worriers will inflict unbelievable torture on ourselves in this manner. Some will worry about ways and means at some future date, some about their children, or what would happen if their health broke down, and others about the vision which their imagination conjures up of the loneliness of their old age. All these things we suffer many times over by worrying about them.

“Whatever would have happened if you had been found out?" I asked a friend of mine who had been telling me of an ingenious deception which he practised on the powers that he, when he was in the army, in order to secure to greater amount of personal comfort and less work. “Oh ! I didn’t think about that.” he replied. “1 never go to meet troubles.” When we come to consider the matter from a logical point of view, nearly all worry is absolutely absurd.

Even in the small happenings of daily life many of our worries arc imaginary. Somebody has annoyed us, or, perhaps, quite unintentionally, hurt our feelings, and we go over and over the happening in our minds instead of promptly relegating it to the region of forgetfulness. The only evils which we really have any logical cause to worry about arc those which we can remedy, and then, of course, we shall promptly remedy them, and our last excuse for this absurd habit will vanish.