Worry, a legacy we pass down!

WE ARE trained from birth to worry. Worry is an unwanted legacy we pass down from grandparents to parents to children. When parents express constant worry, children grow up thinking that life goes on only because of worry. Understand that life goes on not because of us, but in spite of us!

One man had just moved in to a remote part of a village. One day, he was seen throwing handfuls of breadcrumbs around his house. His neighbour who was watching him asked him: “What are you doing?” The man replied, “I am keeping the tigers away.” The neighbour was surprised. He said: “But there are no tigers in these parts!” The man replied: “That’s right. Very effective, isn’t it?”

Children are like sponges. They simply absorb the body language and attitude of the parents. If a child hears his parent repeating a certain worry, he internalises it, carries it through out his life, and passes it in turn to his children. The problem is that parents expect their children to worry! If they don’t worry, they brand them as uncaring. It is possible to care without worrying. Care is doing, worry is chattering. There is no use chattering. Chattering is like trying to cross a bridge before we come to it.

A young man was driving his mother to the neighbouring village. They were nearing the village when they remembered a particular bridge that used to be very old and unusable. The mother got very anxious and said: “I will never cross that bridge by car.” The son said: “Let’s see how it looks when we come to it.”

The mother said: “I’m sure the bridge will break if we attempt to cross it.” The son replied: “Let’s see how strong it is. We won’t cross it without checking it carefully.” The mother said: “If something happens to you or me, your father will never forgive me.” She kept going on like this, becoming more and more upset. Soon they reached the spot where the bridge stood. The bridge had been replaced with a new one!

It is not that the son does not care. He just cares without worry. So much energy is spent worrying. Why contemplate over the bridge even before we come to it? By constant worrying, we make negative thoughts a habit within us.

We need to look at our worries with awareness. Understand that we are a part of the grand plan of Existence. If we tune in to it, our actions will be fluid and spontaneous like the happenings of Existence.

Let us surrender to the Existence. Let us release ourselves from our worries. Be blissful!