Letting Go of Fear and Worry During the Storm

One of Buckley’s most profoud lessons for me was to:

Let go of fear, embrace change, and move toward joy. 

I had grown up being a worrier. I could easily come up with the worst possible scenario for any given situation and turn it over in my mind endlessly, to the point where I often ended up paralyzed with worry. I knew that this propensity to worry was holding me back from really letting myself live my life to its fullest potential. When I began to understand and really believe that we have the power to control our thoughts and that our thoughts are vibrations that affect what we experience in our reality, I was able to short-circuit the worry cycle more easily. It became clear to me that worrying and obsessing over what might happen would only attract the very thing I did not want into my experience. Worrying also made a statement that I did not trust in the wisdom of the universe and I truly believe that we are meant to be happy and that the universe supports us at all times. I knew on a deep level that things would always work out and that all was well. I knew I had the power to make a conscious choice to be happy and feel good, and with time it became easier to redirect my thoughts away from worries about the future and focus on the present moment instead. Buckley reminded me of this every day just by being who she was. She lived fully in each moment and gave all her attention to whatever she was doing in that moment. There was no need to get ahead of herself and think about what the next moment might bring. She was happy and joyful in the present moment and that was all that mattered. 

These last few days, my old pattern of worrying reared its ugly head.   The severe winter weather that hit the Washington DC area challenged me in ways I hadn’t been challenged in quite some time.   The sheer physical demands of shoveling almost three feet of snow out of my driveway was overwhelming at times.  Being stuck and not able to go anywhere for a few days made me feel out of control.  I was fortunate that I only lost power for twelve hours on Saturday, but I felt very cut off from my support system of friends, both “real life” and online.  My house phone service is provided by my cable company, so no power means no phone.  Not knowing how long the power was going to be off, I wanted to preserve the charge on my cell phone, so I didn’t want to use it exept to let people know I was okay.   As I alternated between shoveling snow and huddling under blankets with Amber, trying to stay warm, it was difficult to not succumb to fear and worry.

And today and tomorrow, we’re supposed to get hit with another round of snow.  I knew I had to get a grip on this worry thing again.  So last night, I connected with my little cat, and she once again reminded me to let go of worry and stay in the moment.

While I don’t have the power to control the weather, or the power company for that matter, I do have the power to control my thoughts.  I can choose to be afraid and worry, or I can choose to trust that all will be well.   This can be challenging in a situation like this.  I don’t watch the news, but I do spend a lot of time online, so it’s impossible to avoid all the dire predictions. 

It’s  a constant discipline to choose to not look at all of that, and to stay in the moment instead.  It helps to focus on the positive aspects of the situation.  I usually love having days with no appointments and no place that I need to be, days I can spend writing, hanging out with Amber, and catching up on my reading.  I prefer to be the one to choose when I have these days, but now that they’re being forced on me, I might as well enjoy them.  The beauty of the fresh snow after the storm ended was absolutely stunning - it was impossible to look at the frozen winter wonderland and not see Source in that.   All that shoveling is probably going to give me arms like Michelle Obama.  Okay, maybe not, but it’s a nice thought.   So there are a lot of positives to focus on.

So for this next storm, I’m choosing to focus on the positive aspects, and on staying in the moment.  And just in case, I bought a car charger for my BlackBerry.