Worry is the sticky glue of the mind.

It seems like such a good idea on the surface, it seems to say that I care about someone or something, otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it. Worry can only be focused on the future or the past, but never the present. I worry in the present, but the second I do, I am taken out of the present to thinking about something in the future or the past. When we worry, we are wondering about an undesirable outcome. It may be about the past, where we wonder whether something that has happened may yet have a negative impact on our lives, or about the future, where we wonder about something that has not occurred yet. Doesn’t it actually sound a little goofy just reading that?

Worry comes along as this reasonable emotion, because it is based on the idea of caring. We worry about each other, about our possessions, about the weather, the economy, the cable guy coming, etc. The list is literally endless and as creative as there are people on this planet. And it sticks in our minds like glue. Worry seems really hard to get rid of. One way is to convince ourselves that things are going to turn out alright somehow, which is hope. But hope is the flip side of worry and thus really no better. It feels better, but it’s made up of the same stuff as worry, which is fear. So when we replace worry with hope, we are simply refocusing our energy to a more positive emotion, but the underlying emotion is still just as fearful. For I am afraid of the future not working out the way I would like it to, or I am afraid that what I hope for may not happen. Not a nice place to be.

When we worry or hope, we are lost in time, looking to the past or future, which we will never experience because they are both not now. And the only ‘time’ we exist is now. We can worry only now, and can hope only now. That is all there is. When we begin to see that, the glue in our mind begins to dissolve. We get to choose whether we keep sniffing the glue of our worried or hopeful minds or not.

There is nothing to worry about or hope for when we are present. The present is a space where worry, hope, or any time bound emotional concept cannot exist. Have you ever been in a moment of complete contentment? The kind of moment when there was nothing in particular on your mind? When the only ‘thing’ on your mind was a feeling of deep and quiet joy? We all have had moments like this, and they are not connected to any particular situation or event, they can show up anytime and anyplace, but they have this feeling to them. If you have indeed had a moment like this before, then you have been fully present and experienced a moment without fear. And without fear there is no worry about anything, and nothing to have to hope for, simply because at that moment, life is perfect. It is a state of presence.

That is all being present is, a feeling. But that is also ALL. Are you willing to stop sniffing the glue?

Cheers,

Ralf