Worry ’26

“Life is difficult for everyone; everyone has bad days. Everyone has trouble in their life, because it doesn’t matter how rich you are: Sickness and trouble and worry and love, these things will mess with you at every level of life.”  Domhnall Gleeson

This week’s conversation is about worry and this can impact on us all from time to time, or for some people daily.  As the quote above states, worry can happen for many reasons.

The point is not to let worry take over your life EVEN when life is tough.  I know that this sounds easy to do and I realise that it is not.  Learning to take breaths, to allow yourself the time to grieve the loss, whether it be financial, health or a death of a loved one. 

For me, when my life went pear shaped with the diagnosis of breast cancer.  I took myself home and spent a few hours allowing myself to cry.  I had told my husband and asked that he come home at his usual time.  The next day was spent ringing the kids and ensuring them, whilst I did not know the plan – the GP had made referrals to a surgeon, and we will work it out.  I then sent messages to close friends over the course of the week.

There were many things I needed to do, make leave arrangements for both my own business and the organisation I worked for part time.  What to tell the clients and who to refer to. 

Then I made the decision that I needed to trust my team.  Whilst it was my first time in this new system of the unknown, my team had experience and I needed to trust them with this.  This helped me process a lot.  I also decided to use a journal; this allowed me to write my concerns down and leave them or follow up with those in the system.  My journals are waiting for me to re-read in the whole and decide what to do with them in the future.  It was a very therapeutic process for me.

I learnt that I needed my mindfulness of breath skills so much more when life was getting tougher.  Reminding myself to breath in for four seconds through the nose and out for six seconds through the mouth.  This helped me remain present, even when things were difficult and/or not cooperating.  Distracting myself and trying to focus on other things that I could control. 

Sometimes, I still forget to do the things that keep me calmer and that is because like you – I am human.  We all go to negative thinking when life goes south, it’s human nature.  Eating well, drinking sufficient fluids and keeping a better self-care plan, all helps in bouncing back quicker.

What do you do, when worrying thoughts interfere in your life?