Getting out of the Way

The End of Worry

There is one major addiction in my life: Worry. Sometimes I worry so much that I want to pinch myself, talk myself into that ‘it’s all going to be alright’. And it will; I know that deeply in my bones. Life has a way of figuring itself out. I know that I can’t control it. But hey, I try! Because somehow, on some level, worrying makes me feel alive, gives me significance, ensures that I matter. The point here is — I make everything about myself. That is the ultimate addiction.

Do you ever wonder where songs come from that deeply touch the hearts of many? When does spontaneous healing occur? How does nature create breakthroughs? Can we control any of it? Many of us want to believe that we can, but what if we have much less choice than we think other than to hard-core surrender to what the Whole chooses to express?

There is an evolutionary process at play, a vast intelligence smarter than our individual conscious brain that choreographs everything. And we? We play a tiny part in it — and so, I want to put this question out there: Why worry?

Yes, yes; ‘My money is not going to fly in by itself, people and governments are not changing fast enough, we are facing extinction and biodiversity breakdown — of course, we need to worry!’ That is a sensible answer. But it may not be the whole story. Let’s imagine for a moment that Life has much grander plans for us than we can even conceive of; that if we let go of constantly trying to push and make things happen according to how we think they should, we would enter a state of being that yields and is, therefore, all the more effective?

There is only so much we can do, and maybe we need to exhaust our ‘doing’ until we finally realize that no amount of it can bring about this new world we are entering. It must be birthed, and this is happening through each of us in our own timing.

Is your creative project exhausting you? Are you anxious not to make it through your healing process? Are you burning yourself out in the busyness of activism? These are all forms of worry; let them remind you to stop trying so hard.

You can water a flower, but you can’t make it bloom. Similarly, you are not here to primarily do but to be. Be like the flower that yields. The more you embrace this, the deeper you will sink into being and the more you will actually get done. Take a step back, and watch it take off. A deeper impulse wants to work through you — all you have to ‘do’ is make room for it. You can’t make it happen. The moment you try, you stall.

So be present in everything you do. Breathe deeply. Go for a walk and enjoy. Stroke the dog. Pluck the weeds. Rest.