Our imagination is a powerful thing.
We can believe almost anything could or will happen to us. Plus, we can imagine that we are better or worse off than we actually are adding all manner of people for or against us and what they ‘are doing’, ‘or thinking’ and ‘up to’ into our mental mix. Meaning we get all mixed up as a result.
Now you would think that we could just flip to using it as much to dream a little as concern a lot. You know, seeing everything working the odd time, and some days viewing less problems and more happier happenings ahead. Well, that makes sense, but us humans don’t act that way.
We tend to focus on one side over the other. Generally we envision either great or not so great as our chief imagining activity. Rarely do many people hip hop between them.
We are either an optimistic sort, or a true pessimistic thinker.
And guess which one most of us fall under?
Worth our weight in worry.
There’s a famous phrase we say when we see people who clearly have heavy stuff going round their head.
‘They have a weight on their mind’.
This means their circumstances are pulling them down mentally. Their mood has become low, their mindset is troubled, and their imagination can’t see many positives. They are in a mental slump.
Instead of being someone worth their weight in gold, they are a person with worry taking the shine off everything. In fact, it’s a common daily experience for large chunks of the world. Minds turned to worry rather than any other point of view or projected outcome.
In the UK 1 in 9 adults worry or stress over their lives every day. For the USA at least a whopping 47% experience ongoing worry on a permanent basis. It gets an even scarier statistic when you look at worldwide figures. The World Health Organisation reported four years ago that globally 359 million people experienced worry based anxiety symptoms each day. At that time that is a huge 4.4% of the world’s population.
And those are just the reported figures. Numbers wise the hole goes far deeper.
Our minds are set to worry.
The true cost of worry.
These statistics are costly.
Well, financially costly if you watch or listen to the media which is preoccupied with money and figures all the time. Less so about human lives where the true cost of this mental malaise hits hard and home. Making it difficult at home and life for everyday good people trying to do their best to live and raise families.
Worry affects a person individually but also, just like a virus, spreads to touch those around them. The very air becomes nervous and full of angst. People in regular contact with this worrier start to develop an anxious edge themselves. A kind of mental telepathy has taken place and infecting others. From families to work colleagues, sports team mates to business contacts, worry is working it’s way through people…all from one person.
The person who is the source of the worry doesn’t get off scot free. They internalise the negative sensation feeling. Their body becomes the victim. Stress, headaches, poor sleep, bad concentration, erratic decision making, skin complaints, heart issues and various other medical conditions stem from worry.
Which brings me to my main point.
Why worry when you can wonder?
Worry has a more magnificent counterpart.
Wonder.
Wonder is to see the incredible. It’s like witnessing magic come true. The real ‘Wow Factor’ but in the mind. Imagination that feels good. A full colour vision in front of your eyes (but mentally). It is the mind at its most alive and aware of everything that can be.
As I said it’s the opposite to worry which does the very same in reverse. That is the mind at its most fearful and despondent seeing only all tragedies and failures that could befall a person. Wonder invites sunshine and smiles and yellow brick roads.
There are two choices of the mind – to worry (and effectively begin dying inside) or wonder (and actually commence thriving everywhere). Wonder takes nothing to start, it costs nothing, it requires no-one else to be involved, and it’s permanently available.
Plus it has HUGE benefits. Take the list above of health problems caused by worry and flip them. That’s wonder at work. Feel good, look good, think good. Hey, it’s all good.
Wonder works…er, wonderfully (sorry, not sorry!).
What to Wonder?
Wonder is a word we tend to use in only one manner.
When we’re confused a little. We wonder what just happened or why someone said what they said. But true wonder is to open our eyes, and most tellingly, our minds to all that’s good, great, and awesome about life and being alive.
We worry about what the day will bring when we can wonder (imagine and see) on positive surprises happening to us.
We worry about the work we have to do while instead we could wonder about the work or life or role we would adore.
And we worry about our family or relationship all the time but we could wonder about the love, and pleasure, and happiness they bring and plan in our head how to make the most of it more.
Wonder is always offered in the sense that the mind only needs to be directed to see, feel, and move towards it. From the wonders of the natural world to the amazing changing seasons, to the wonder that in this modern world all the tools are easily at hand to change our own lives completely. We can study, practice, learn, connect, get advice, get information, and get started in some new way in super quick time.
We don’t have to worry when we can wonder at all that can be achieved if we put our minds to it.
Excite your life.
It’s time to replace anxiety with excitement.
Cut the Netflix, TV sports, and scrolling on the phone and watch tutorials on YouTube, join a sports club to connect to others, or research a keen interest or develop a personal skill. Don’t kill your mind, galvanise it! Give it something to get it’s visionary teeth into.
Wonder is everywhere. It only requires us to switch it on. If we do we can replace worry with something that our minds can actually get fired up about. They will be animated, enthusiastic, in full 3D thinking, and pop us full of endorphin filled excitement.
You gotta wonder what that would be like??
Make your worry days over and let your wonder years begin.
References –
Ciphr.com – One in nine UK adults feel stressed every day survey.
Medium.com – Time spent worrying.
Who.int – news room – Anxiety Disorders.
Photo attributions – free to use under Pixabay Content License by Tumisu and sewuparistudio and geralt.
