Living in a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems is a personal choice.  We can choose to give way to anxiety or unease and allow ourselves to dwell on difficulty or troubles.

Or not.

I do not intend to advocate the ostrich approach, that is choosing to hide your head in the sand (avoid reality) and a staying away from worry, however, allowing yourself to be anxious or worried when there is nothing you can do about it seems to me to be just a way to propagate unpleasant feelings unnecessarily.

Why Worry

Emotions that typically do not raise your level of pleasure (for most of us) exist for a purpose.  Things like fear, anxiety, and worry do have value but we often allow ourselves to experience these emotions when it really serves no purpose.

This raises the question, should I worry about something and if not then why am I?  Fair question.  I think the answer lies in the level of control and level of impact.

Consider – Why do I care?

The value worry brings is the resulting actions it prompts you to take.  Worrying continuously without addressing the root cause is both painful and relatively useless practice.

Most importantly don’t ignore your worry, do something about it, this might just be acceptance.  The key factor here is determining if you can do something about it, if not, accept and move on.

For example, recent budget cuts by the provincial government where I live are resulting in job losses.  Can I stop it, probably not?  Can I prepare for the eventuality, of course, there are many things I can do.

So I don’t worry, I just act.