Mis-use of your creative imagination (ramble)

One of my favorite quotes, from a source I cannot recall, has always been:"Worry is the mis-use of your creative imagination."

It illuminates so much.

Worry is an imagination. It is your mind dwelling on, mulling over and creating scenarios about some future chain of events. Presently, I am doing it about several things: Money, relationships, my future.... If we measure truth as something that is undeniable, than anything less than truth has some measure of wishful or worry-full thinking. I will explain.

We are creative beings. We can create scenarios in our heads (imagination) that we put (misguided) faith into. Worry imagines how perceived-limitations (whether true or not) will hender or destroy our desires(goals) and responsibilities. What amazes me the most, is how much faith some of us put into them. If we actually wrote down everything we ever worried about, then compared it to what actually happened, we would be embarrassingly inaccurate. The only face-saving lie we could cling to would be, "well, it didn't happen because I worried about it." Balderdash!

I should note, that worry is different than caution. Caution sees a danger and avoids it. Caution does not dwell on the limitation/obstacle/danger; it identifies and avoids/deals with it. Worry takes caution out of reality and brews an anxiety-creating fantasy. (Anyone who is control-obsessed is trying to manage all variables so they can avoid their imagined calamity. Oh, what a self-tortured life.)

Now wishful fantasies can be equally destructive. They can create expectations that will never be lived up to (both in yourself and in others). When those expectations are not met, they create a loss that must be grieved. Just yesterday, I fantasized about suddenly coming into millions of dollars (through a yet-to-be-identified brilliance that has so-far avoided me). I was then able to take care of, in my mind, every energy-sapping un-met responsibility. I could then enjoy (again, in my mind) all the wishes I desire and fantasized about. It was a panacea (all-problems-solved) moment. The thrill of it let me believe, if only for a moment, that everything would be okay. No, I didn't actually believe it. But It made it okay to fantasize about it.

But truth is much more sobering. If pleasure where our purpose and goal in life, then, by God, the crazy people have it right. Let's live in our fantasy world. Oh wait, most of us do already. Except we do it by holding unattainable (though rationalized) expectations while torturing ourselves with hours of fruitless worry.

Step back, as I have, and realize what we are doing to oursevse. We can choose to stop it. Most stop it by self-medicating (drugs, fantasy, distractions). Most of us use at lease one to help us get through. Our other option is to embrace truth - and let it set us free. It is a long journey, but the journey will free you from these things that bind you.

Don't tell me you don't have faith. Faith is what you express when you trust something enough let it deal with that which tortures you. Take another look at what you are trusting in.

I am.

I have such a long way to go.