Worrying: Maybe It’s Not the Enemy?

I am currently reading a book on worry because I thought it was a very important thing for me to address, especially for myself. I know other people also worry. When I refer to worry, I mean being always constantly worried about the future. It involves ending up creating scenarios that are bad for you. You overthink that scenario to the extent that you feel there is always going to be a bad outcome from it.

I do not know if anyone else feels this way, but I certainly do. I worry too much. I think this is because I am a very overthinking person. I am unsure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe in some cases it is good, but honestly, not in all cases. My entire day is spent thinking about future things that might not go the way I expect.

I create these scenarios, such as:

• “What if I get to this place and this happens?”
• “What if this person actually does this, and this bad thing happens?”
• “What if I actually get what I want, but something comes up again, and I lost it all?”

I constantly worry about everything, and my brain just does not stop. Sometimes this overwhelming feeling makes me feel really sick. I realize I spent my entire day worried about something, but those worries did not turn out to be true. That worry is only in my thought; that is not reality. When the actual event happens in the next few days, it is completely different from what I imagined it would be. It goes completely well, and what I thought would happen actually goes right.

A Shift in Perspective

I have decided now to stop, not to stop worrying but to stop creating these negative scenarios whenever I feel worried. Although I haven’t finished the book I am reading yet, I was able to pick up a few key things. The book states that worrying is good. It is very good to worry, which sounds weird, but the book states this. It says that when you worry, it is a sign. It specifies worrying as a means to solving problems.

The book explains that the reason we worry is because our mind wants us to solve a particular problem. It wants us to find the solution. There is no way for us to find a solution to a problem if we do not worry about it. Therefore, worrying means we need to find a solution. It is quite funny, but true: if we decide to remove our worries, how would we solve our problems? We would not worry about the problem, and thus it would not be solved.

I usually think of worrying as a bad thing. I believe this interpretation comes from culture. When I translate the English word ‘worry’ into a word in my culture, it carries a totally different meaning. I associated ‘worry’ with a word in my culture called ironu. Ironu is defined as overthinking. Although overthinking and worrying are two completely different things, I tend to see them as the same, because my mind overthinks and worries simultaneously.

The Real Issue: Overthinking the Worry

Worrying is good. It is the overthinking that is not good. You cannot completely take worrying out of your life because it is necessary. I need to be able to worry about things because I need to find solutions for them. What I must stop doing is overthinking the worry. Overthinking leads to creating fake scenarios in my head, resulting in a lot of anxiety and nauseousness. I feel sick, and my entire day does not go well. The haunting scenarios created in my mind based on my worries are what cause me to have a bad day eventually.

To clarify: Overthinking is not a good thing to do. Worrying is good because it helps us solve our problems, but overthinking is a very different thing.

That is all I have for today. I am going for a walk, and I just wanted to share this insight. I plan to continue reading the book because I feel like I will learn a lot from it that would help me. As I discover new things, I will share them.