Shake, Rattle, and...Worry

I was in a deep sleep when my bed began to shake. When I awoke, my first thought was, “Who is jumping on my bed?”

My eyes traveled to the end of the bed. No one was there. Could it be a ghost, I wondered.

I placed my hand on the bed to stop it from shaking, but the effort was useless. That’s when I fully awoke and realized that I was in an earthquake.

While Atlanta is on a fault line, this was the first earthquake I had ever experienced. I’ve been to California, where I worried about being in possible earthquakes, but turns out I felt my first earthquake in my home state. Ironic, huh?

Not surprisingly, the earthquake caused me to worry, especially since it was considered a moderate quake, rating 4.9 on the Richter Scale.

I began worrying about earthquakes way before the one that occurred here in 2003, though. And I’ve started to worry about them again after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. I’ve been worried about all of the people in Japan, and they are in my thoughts and prayers every day.

Of course, the natural disasters in Japan have led to more worries about earthquakes happening here. I worry about the devastation that they could cause and being trapped because of one. I know Georgia hasn’t seen big earthquakes for 100 to 200 years, but the earth is alive and always evolving. You can’t be too sure about anything these days, and that is very worrisome for a worrywart like myself. The more I dwell on the things that could happen, the more worried and stressed I become. The earth is something we cannot control, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Developing a positive mindset and letting go of the things I can’t control is definitely something I can control, though. Now, if only I could learn how to do that. Any ideas?

Copyright © 2011

No Worries...Right?

I had just returned from the gym yesterday morning when an idea hit me. I’m not going to worry about anything today, I thought.

Maybe it was the endorphins talking after the intense workout, but nevertheless, I thought it was an excellent idea. Could I not worry for an entire day? Really? Me?

For the past two days I felt anxious, like I had to worry about something. I’m not sure why I felt that way, but it began to tire me. For just one day I wanted to know what it felt like not to worry about anything. So I got ready for the day and with a spring in my step, headed to work.

Not long after my departure from home, I found myself behind a slow car. Don’t get upset, I told myself. Everything will be fine, and you will get to work on time.

The car soon turned, and finally I was able to go the speed limit. See, I told myself, that wasn’t so bad.

Once at work, I poured a cup of coffee (a drink I never cared for until I started regularly working out in the mornings). Not long afterwards, I began to feel jittery and wondered if the coffee could be affecting my heart negatively. The day before I had read an article on Yahoo! about how coffee can be good for you, so I fought to push all of the negative thoughts aside.

Later in the afternoon, I felt a tingling sensation on my head. That’s nothing, I thought.

Then, it happened again. It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it, I told myself.

But then it happened yet again, and I couldn’t Google the symptoms fast enough. The search found so many things it could have been, but in the end, I think the tingling was caused by a pinched nerve in my neck.

So I failed at my first attempt not to worry all day long. It was an ambitious challenge for a chronic worrier such as myself, but I shouldn’t worry about my failed attempt. For the first time in my life, I made the effort to eliminate useless worrying, and I should feel good about that.

Copyright © 2011

Worries In The Forecast

The glass doors slid open, and I stepped outside cautiously. It was raining, but the sky was lighter than it had been thirty minutes earlier. A jolt of relief ran through my body, and I took a deep breath. The threat of a tornado had passed, and it was safe to walk to my car.

Or so I thought.

A rumble of thunder rolled across the clouds, and I darted across the parking lot. Just as I lifted the remote to unlock my car, a flash of lightening flooded the sky. I began to run faster and tried to shut my umbrella, which is old and would not close easily. When I arrived at my car, I shoved the opened umbrella inside and quickly followed it.

I had made it. I was safe, but still shaking. What if I had gotten struck by lightening? Right before I had ventured out into the dying storm, a fellow worrywart told me she knows someone who got struck by lightening once, and the only thing that saved her were her rain boots. Of course, that’s all I could think of as I ran to the car last week.

So now that winter is nearing its end, I no longer have to worry about icy roads. Isn’t that great? Instead, I have tornadoes and severe weather to worry about for the next several months.

Why do I worry about the weather - whether it’s snow or ice or tornadoes - so much? Maybe because it’s something I can’t control. I know many people say not to worry about something if it’s out of your control, but that’s when I seem to worry about things the most - when they are out of my control. I think that’s why I worry about blood clots so much; even though regular exercise and staying active can help to prevent them, sometimes not much can stop the formation of the clots.

I know it’s not healthy to worry about things you can’t control; it’s extra stress on your heart, which can cause even more problems. Therefore, before we have another tornado watch, I am going to plan for a different type of tornado preparedness: cognitive reframing. According to About.com, this is one of the techniques used to help people who have a fear of tornadoes or severe storms developing into tornadoes. Cognitive reframing is as simple as learning to stop negative thoughts and replacing them with more positive ones. This is something I know I should do all the time, not just during tornado season. However, since the chance of seeing a tornado is relatively low (I’ve been close to tornado paths, but haven’t been in one), this spring seems like a good time to start practicing this technique.

So next time there is a tornado watch, I’ll try to watch my stress levels more than the radar.

Copyright © 2011