. . . scheduled worry time

Some time ago, I signed up for The Daily Ohm. Maybe some of you get these free messages, too. Sometimes I even read them. Mostly I skip over them. But yesterday I read one. It was about giving yourself the opportunity to experience your natural emotions, mostly the bad ones, instead of suppressing them deep inside yourself so they will fester and interfere with your mental and physical health and well-being. It was recommended that you schedule a time to experience these emotions, when you will be alone and feel safe. Then just let yourself go. And supposedly when you're done, everything is better.


I don't know. . . is worry an emotion? Or is it an activity? I am a worrier by nature, and I'm good at it. For the past few years, I had less to worry about, so maybe I was out of practice. But all of a sudden. . .at least it seems like all of a sudden. . .oh, my, there is so much to worry about. I tried ignoring everything that was worrisome, only delaying the inevitable. I tried to take action on those things that were problems, with some success, but sometimes creating more cause for worry. So now I'm going to schedule worry time. I'm not going to do it all day, every day. I resolve to worry for about 15 minutes every day. During that time, I will absolutely wallow in worry. Then I will move on to other things. Hopefully I will worry constructively: I will come up with a plan, a solution, a way out, an escape from a trap, a path out of the maze. I figure I can handle anything if I have a plan; it's when your back is up against the wall and there's no way out that things fall apart. Maybe I'll limit myself to one topic per day, whichever worry is greatest at the time. That's it. It's a plan. This afternoon I will worry. We should start a worry blog. Post your own worry for the day. Get it out there. The blog world is teeming with problem solvers. We should plug into that expertise.


Above is another accidental painting. Right now it reminds me of caramel and chocolate and nougat and nuts, which is making me want a candy bar. This one will undergo several more transformations before it's done, probably. Depends a lot on what I paint in the next few days. Something to worry about later.