worry is eating us alive
I think humans need to be in better control of how much we worry.
Because unfortunately being more hesitant to worry isn’t really encouraged in our culture. We’re supposed to be paying attention, to be aware, to ‘care’ about everything and everyone all the time. And yes, it is important to care, and yes, the world is a terrifying place, but it is also important to just give yourself a place to breathe.
Because worry, that tension, that stress, that immersive panic, that vulture circling over a problem that we indulge in all the time is just eating us alive.
We’re just not supposed to do it.
We’re supposed to be afraid of threats and dangers right in front of us, and we’re supposed to be anxious when we notice dangerous patterns or potentials, because those reactions do keep us safe, but we’re not supposed to circle on them continuously, day after day, when we are in fact entirely safe and sound.
Because that tension does horrible things to our bodies (those of us who have ever had a somatic reaction to stress are well aware of this fact) and it does horrible things to our relationships with other people.
When you circle fixated over a worry, there’s not much else you are able to think about. It makes sincere emotional connections hard, it makes good fulfilling conversations hard, it makes relationships feel empty and shallow, because you’re so preoccupied by that worry that you have no positive energy to share with another person.
There needs to be balance. There needs to be less encouragement to worry. There can be space to express worries and do things about them, but they should not be a perpetual issue. We should move past them, for ourselves and those around us. We cannot be held static, consumed by these thoughts and feelings.
~dys
[This piece is heavily inspired by Anxious by Amy Simpson]