On Worrying

As I said here, I don't necessarily think that I worry more than most (but then who knows, and this is the second time I've written about worrying in two years) but I do dislike how self-sabotaging and unproductive it can be. Which is one of the reasons that I loved this commencement address by poet and author Mary Karr which contains lots of quotable nuggets like this:

'The real purpose of poetry, W.H. Auden said, is disenchantment. Not to throw fairy dust in somebody's eyes, it's stripping away what's false so you can see what's true underneath. I like to say poetry has to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.'

…and pieces of wisdom like this:

'That's how fear works though, isn't it? Getting what you want can often scare you more than not getting it.'

…that makes a powerful point about how to deal with negative feelings:

'almost every time I was super afraid it was of the wrong thing. And stuff that first looked like the worst, most humiliating thing that could ever happen almost always led me to something extraordinary and very fine.'

And then co-incidentally (as is so often the way) on the same day I happened across one of Eric Barker's typically succint but comprehensive takes on how to stop worrying which, even if you don't think you worry too much, is full of good, insightful advice.