July/August 2002
Feature Articles
Holistic Health Q & A
by Dr. George Forster
Of whiplash and prescription drugs.
What is... the Organic Movement?
by Robert Roman
Part one of a three-part article detailing
the author's personal experiences and the growth of the organic movement.
UnCommon Sense!
by David Findlay
The Middle East, terrorism, weapons
of mass destruction.
Articles on the theme "To Worry Or Not To Worry"
What, Me Worry?
by AnneMarie Dyer
A vacation leads to some spiritual
insights.
Worrier To Warrior
by Lisa Raphael
The difference between someone who
worries and a warrior, a person of courage and vigor.
The Righteous Worrier!
by Rev. D. Kaye Patrick
Does worry really mean loving and caring?
Or is worrying a waste of time and energy?
Let It Go!
by Tracy Woolrich
Easy to say, but how to do it?
Why Worry?
by Bob Murray PhD
The underlying cause of over-anxious
reactions and generalized worry - and the solution.
A Balancing Act
by Charles Larsen
Of over-reacting and under-reacting
and the attempt to find a middle ground.
Too Blessed To Be Stressed
by Rev. Pat Cross
The power to choose between a human
or a spiritual view of our problems.
Remember Scarlett O'Hara
by Dave Hunt
A life without worry? How to achieve
it?
Worrier To Warrior
by Lisa Raphael
I love to play with words, and as soon as I began to think about worrying and people who worry worriers or worrywarts my mind jumped to a Rune called the Rune of the Spiritual Warrior. (The Runes are an ancient script of symbols engraved in stone that serve as Oracles to help access the wisdom of the unconscious.)
What is the relationship between a worrier, someone who feels uneasy or troubled about something or someone, and a warrior, a person of courage and vigor? How are they different from one another?
The first major difference is that the worrier's response to life's problems is passive, and the warrior's response is active. A worrier tends to mull over an issue again and again, and to get caught up in all kinds of "why"s: Why is this happening; why is it happening to the people it is happening to; why did it not happen to someone else. With all this attention to the "why"s, the worrier can become stuck in a maze of possible scenarios, possible outcomes, and possible and probable responses in each of these scenarios, with little or no energy left with which to take action.
A warrior will carefully assesses the "what"s of the circumstances: what is the situation, what brought it about and what can be done about it, and then act to bring it to resolution.
Both the worrier and the warrior pay serious attention to how best a conflict is to be resolved. But in the worrier, this consideration takes on a life of its own, and becomes rumination, a thinking and feeling ABOUT whatever it is. In a warrior, the consideration is directed towards thinking THROUGH the problem. The warrior may take as much time as the worrier to reach a decision regarding the right action in a given set of circumstances. Yet the quality of the consideration, the ways in which the possibilities and probabilities are examined are entirely different, resulting in different outcomes.
Just as I finished writing the first part of this article a young woman who is anticipating getting the final word on her diagnosis of possible Multiple Sclerosis next week called. To the outside world, Jane is a true warrior. She bravely schedules her appointments and examinations, tackles the practical issues in a forthright manner, and seems to carry on regardless. Yet she has felt too tired to travel to her supportive appointments for the last two weeks, places where it is safe to share her feelings and concerns, and lives in an environment where there is no safe way to express herself freely. Because Jane has been psycho-spiritually locked in isolation for so long, guarding herself when she is most vulnerable, she was unaware that she was choosing behavior at this crucial time that reinforced the need to numb her feelings, just when it may be most useful to identify, feel and release them. Numbing of feelings and sensations is, after all, one of the primary symptoms of MS. In this case, what looks like a warrior to the outside world is really a secret worrier. The worries are locked and isolated in the cells of her body, inhibiting her ability to fully respond to the enormity of the issues, while she appears to be tackling it "head on." The term "head on" is a clue in itself. A true warrior uses ALL of the resources of thinking, feeling, intuiting, and skillful practice not just the head in discerning right action.
My mother was a world champion worrier. Orphaned at twelve and barely surviving two world wars, she came by her insecurity honestly. For her, worrying was a form of self-protection, like payment in advance on disasters not yet manifest. Driven by worry and guilt, she attracted people who gave her more to worry about, which helped insulate her from looking deeply into her own pain and loss. I shared my mother's insecurity and tendency to worry, and made a lucrative career out of helping folks with lots to worry about. However, as a psychotherapist, I used professional training and my own therapy to get in touch with and heal my own deep pain. As a result, the former worrier became a healer and spiritual warrior, for whom wealth and satisfaction are no longer measured in material terms.
For the worrier, there are constant battles going on between the little self, or ego, and the outside world. For the Spiritual Warrior, the battle is between self and Self, or soul. The worrier worries about how he or she looks to the outside world, what stance to take, what kind of image to put forward. The Spiritual Warrior is focused on the molding of character, and uses the sword of discrimination to cut away the old, the extraneous. The worrier wants tangible evidence of the value of his or her person and actions. The warrior is unattached to appearances and outcomes, and trusts Spirit to make the final dispensation.
A Warrior's Creed
(14th Century Samurai: from The Book of Runes by Ralph Blum)
I have no parents: I make the heavens and earth my parents.
I have no home: I make awareness my home.
I have no means: I make understanding my means.
I have no principles; I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.
I have no friends: I make my mind my friend.
I have no enemy: I make carelessness my enemy.
I have no armor: I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.
I have no castle: I make immovable mind my castle.
I have no sword: I make absence of self my sword.
I have no life or death: I make the tides of breathing my life and death.
It is a challenge to give up worrying and become a Spiritual Warrior. Our materialistic culture discourages it. Yet this may be precisely what these times of political, social and fiscal uncertainty are calling for.
Are you a worrier or a warrior?
Lisa Raphael is a Florida licensed mental health counselor, transformational
holistic healer, seminar leader and author. FL (727) 822-0489. lisaraphael@worldnet.att.net
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