Mental Health Minute No. 3: Manage Your Worry
Or: consider the consequences before it drives you off the edge
This is a short weekly newsletter devoted to simple ideas that can boost community and individual mental wellness and also give my readers a pick-me-up at the end of the week. Do you have a tip for a future Mental Health Minute? Email me!
How many of you deal with worry on a regular basis? Does it distract you? Does it weigh you down? Does it add to your anxiety? Does it prevent you from enjoying beautiful things in life? Raise your hand if you answered yes. Okay, now that all of us have raised our hands, me included, we will proceed.
Years ago, I heard a powerful story about a business executive in the area. Anytime a subordinate brought him a problem with any level of panic or worry, he asked a simple question: “is anybody dead or seriously wounded?” If the answer was no, he advised them to calm down. You see, this man had served as a military officer in Vietnam. He had made decisions with lives on the line, including his own and others that he commanded. After those difficult years, he gained a different perspective on the matters that were worth taxing our brain with panic and worry. He rightly came to realize that it was too easy to panic and worry about issues that are not that serious in the grand scheme of life
I can get this way myself. My brain can fixate on an issue with unknown outcomes and it will distract me from doing good work or facing other tasks until I have some sort of clarity or direction. It’s terribly unhealthy to let our brains do that.
This is not to say that we don’t face issues that are simultaneously important but non-life-threatening. We do. This doesn’t mean we should blow them off. But I am learning to tackle those issues in due course, with the right amount of seriousness that they deserve, without ruining my day or mental health for something that’s just not worth it.
Happy Friday, friends!
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the “Rural Church and State” and “West of 98” podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found. Check out the West of 98 Bookstore with book lists for essential reads here.