Borrowing Trouble
Sep. 27th, 2011 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cedar_groveFrom The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.
...that worry was the mental echo of fear, the replaying in detail of all the bad things that might or might not come into being.
One of the thoughts that came to me when I read this entry was the Litany Against Fear from the Frank Herbert's Dune series, which is like a prayer or orison spoken by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood – kind of like sci-fi nuns for want of a better word – a means by which they can calm their minds and bodies. It goes something like this:
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Whether it is the fact of reciting something – of engaging a different part of your brain than that active when one is afraid, speaking or remembering (or both) this litany does help to be calming. What I mean by this is that it's not some kind of special prayer, or magical banishing of the emotion, just that the discipline of the recitation alters your state of being. One might as easily recite Shakespeare, or the lyrics of one's favourite song, I suppose.
So that works for immediate fears, in situations where one is faced by the prospect of something that is fearful, stressful situations and the like, but what about ingrained fears and worries?
There's another saying that I like... one that admonishes not to 'borrow trouble.' I think that speaks to worries more than fears. For example:
On Friday, Ishta goes to have her surgery – it's the same surgery that her sister Samantha had, more or less, and after that surgery Samantha got pneumonia to which she succumbed. It's a natural thing for me to be worrying that the same might happen to Ishta, right? (because I am... terribly worried). I have to keep reminding myself that, yes... they are related – come from the same genes – but that doesn't mean that everything is going to be exactly the same; that doesn't mean that things will happen the same way. I mustn't assume that the same thing is going to happen to Ishta. I must not 'borrow trouble' from the past. On the other hand, a little worry can be healthy... in the same example, knowing what happened to Samantha, we can take care to ensure we watch over Ishta – take care giving her her medicine, keep her still when she needs to be still, all those kind of things – not that we wouldn't do these things anyway, just that we might in some ways be extra vigilant so that Ishta comes through everything just fine.
I think my point is that fear and worry are not necessarily all bad, just when taken to excess. On a personal note, I used to say that I was a 'born worrier' – though my worry has always before been for people rather than things/situations. Somehow, another transformation has crept over me, where I worry now about things and situations too – perhaps even as much if not more than people. When did that happen, and why?
Live, I say, live your worries through
And your spirit will wake from its fever
And you will want others like soup.
...that worry was the mental echo of fear, the replaying in detail of all the bad things that might or might not come into being.
One of the thoughts that came to me when I read this entry was the Litany Against Fear from the Frank Herbert's Dune series, which is like a prayer or orison spoken by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood – kind of like sci-fi nuns for want of a better word – a means by which they can calm their minds and bodies. It goes something like this:
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Whether it is the fact of reciting something – of engaging a different part of your brain than that active when one is afraid, speaking or remembering (or both) this litany does help to be calming. What I mean by this is that it's not some kind of special prayer, or magical banishing of the emotion, just that the discipline of the recitation alters your state of being. One might as easily recite Shakespeare, or the lyrics of one's favourite song, I suppose.
So that works for immediate fears, in situations where one is faced by the prospect of something that is fearful, stressful situations and the like, but what about ingrained fears and worries?
There's another saying that I like... one that admonishes not to 'borrow trouble.' I think that speaks to worries more than fears. For example:
On Friday, Ishta goes to have her surgery – it's the same surgery that her sister Samantha had, more or less, and after that surgery Samantha got pneumonia to which she succumbed. It's a natural thing for me to be worrying that the same might happen to Ishta, right? (because I am... terribly worried). I have to keep reminding myself that, yes... they are related – come from the same genes – but that doesn't mean that everything is going to be exactly the same; that doesn't mean that things will happen the same way. I mustn't assume that the same thing is going to happen to Ishta. I must not 'borrow trouble' from the past. On the other hand, a little worry can be healthy... in the same example, knowing what happened to Samantha, we can take care to ensure we watch over Ishta – take care giving her her medicine, keep her still when she needs to be still, all those kind of things – not that we wouldn't do these things anyway, just that we might in some ways be extra vigilant so that Ishta comes through everything just fine.
I think my point is that fear and worry are not necessarily all bad, just when taken to excess. On a personal note, I used to say that I was a 'born worrier' – though my worry has always before been for people rather than things/situations. Somehow, another transformation has crept over me, where I worry now about things and situations too – perhaps even as much if not more than people. When did that happen, and why?
