SENIOR MOMENT: Changing worry into action

By BETTY MUNSEY/Columnist

Worry is a common denominator in our world today with the ever tightening global financial crisis, concerns about the forthcoming presidential election, and assorted personal issues and illnesses. We know that worry results in increased anxiety and uneasiness, which can affect our health, our sleep patterns and our overall outlook on life.
Side effects of excessive worrying are doubts, regrets, disappointment, sadness and even despair. It’s true that worry can actually make a person sick as in “I’m worried sick.” Yet telling someone not to worry is much easier said than done especially when we’re up to our necks in alligators or problems.
My maternal grandmother was one of the most hardworking, loving individuals you would ever meet, yet she was a worrier according to my mother. In addition to helping run the family business, she would clean, cook and do laundry for eight boarders at a time and loved to put the pedal to the metal when she drove her large old Buick. Thankfully most of those dreaded events she worried about never materialized, and her life was fairly free of calamities.
Worry is evident on television sitcoms, in newspaper letters to the editors, and even in the popular “Pickles” cartoon strip. The cartoon’s lead character is forever calling his wife a worrywart due to her endless worrying and fretting over things that never happen. Her response is that “someone has to do it” which of course isn’t true since 97 percent of things people worry about never happen (according to unofficial research).
Richard Schneider wrote a devotional in the “2008 Daily Guideposts” detailing his early experiences serving coffee in a Walgreen Drugstore. Schneider found it difficult to meet his manager’s goal of serving cups of coffee on dry saucers without spills. As his worry level escalated, his hand shook causing more spills. A co-worker helped him successfully work through his worries by focusing on where he was going rather than the liquid in the cup.
Mental health experts suggest confiding in a trusted friend, counselor, or minister who can help us understand the true nature of our worries. Hopefully they can separate us from our state of worry to understanding what can be changed and what is out of our control. The Serenity Prayer reminds us to ask that “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
A retired Extension agent, Betty Munsey lives and farms in Bland County.