Worrying is a waste of Energy

As many of you know I went back to full time work this week and to say the process of starting over again is exhausting and sometimes overwhelming is an understatement.

Whenever we start something new, we worry too much about how people will react. Will we be able to meet the expectations? Have we made the right decision?  We spend so much time worrying about worrying that we don’t do.

The last few days I have been experiencing this very thing. Nerves on edge. Until late in the afternoon when the piles were building on my desk. The phone was ringing nonstop. Emails were piling in.  Demands were mounting. And my head felt like it was spinning like the girl in The Exorcist. I took a deep breath, opened my Buddha book looked at the serene photos and read some peaceful words and then I felt myself starting to relax. The noise in my head started to lessen. The worry and fear seeped out of my pores. And then all that was too much before became a walk in the park. Everything made sense. Everything fell into place. My thoughts became more organised. My focus became clearer and I tackled the piles. Putting them in order. Prioritising what was to come first and did instead of worried.

I came home quite late as a result but just in time to read to my children. For the last couple of weeks I have been reading a story a night to my children from a lovely book called, Enlightening Tales, by Sri Swami Satchidananda. And last night’s story was an affirmation of my discovery yesterday.  Last night’s story was called, “How to Stop an Elephant”.  It was about a little boy who had been given everything he wanted so he had no fear. No worries. Because he was fearless, he believed he could do anything and he did. At his young age he was able to stop an elephant.

Then one day he was given a task he could not solve.  So he spent the whole night worrying about it so much so that when he was asked to stop the elephant the next day he couldn’t.

The moral of the story was, “Never worry about anything. Worry doesn’t bring any benefit to anyone. On the one hand, it saps your energy and takes away whatever capacity you do have. Instead, remain calm and peaceful, and you will always know what to do.”

Both my children loved the story and they loved it even more when I told them about my last few days and how the story had affirmed to me that worrying is truly a waste of energy.