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Gale Minchew, PhD

Inspire • Uplift • Motivate • Empower

Living a Worry-Free Life...

It's a natural human tendency to worry. We have been conditioned to do so virtually our entire lives. We worry about our kids, our job, crossing the street safely, having enough money to buy groceries or pay the bills, whether we are on the right spiritual path in life...and the list goes on and on. What does this worry give us, though? What satisfaction or comfort do we derive from this worry? What benefit does it provide? For something  to which we give so much power, the answer is astonishingly...nothing.

Worry does does not provide comfort, satisfaction, or any benefit to us whatsoever. Instead, it adds to the spiral of negativity and despair in our lives. For truly, that which we worry about only becomes amplified as a result of our worry. Health issues often ensue: tension, nervousness, anxiety, and frustration on the one hand, which may lead to high blood pressure, insomnia, and weight loss or gain on the other hand, for instance. This worry is a function of fear, and this fear is derived from the unknown...what the future may hold for us...that which we cannot see or control.

Believe it or not, we don't need to live this way. We can choose to live fearlessly. As we approach life from a place of love, the worry naturally begins to dissipate. What a blessing! The question then becomes, how do we shift from a pattern of fear-based living to a new habit of living from a place of love without worry?

As we begin to live in the now, in this very moment, we need only set our intentions and take positive steps to create the life we desire.
Fortunately, we have many tools at our disposal. Choose the tools that work best for you and be willing to commit to this practice daily:
 
1. Have faith in yourself. You can do this! Know within your heart that you can live a worry-free life. Set that intention...today...right now.
2. Ask the angels for support and guidance. Be open to the signs they send to you.
3. Give your cares to God.
4. Take time to meditate so that you may transmute, or change, the energy of fear and worry into peace and love within your heart and mind.
5. Use affirmations designed to eliminate fear from your mind and reprogram your thought patterns. 
6. Get back to nature. Unplug for a moment. Take a walk. Clear your mind by observing the majesty of creation and the beauty that surrounds you.
7. Release control over the outside world. Holding on so tightly to the reigns is a burden. Allow yourself to move with the ebbs and flows of life, instead.    
8. Engage in activites designed to reduce the tendency to worry, such as exercise, drawing, writing, or some other creative or physical endeavor that you enjoy. 

The more your mind focuses on the creative or physical processes in life and the activities that you enjoy, the more positive your thoughts will become. And in the restructuring of these thoughts, you will find a decrease in the amount of time you spend worrying, dwelling on what is to come, or fearing the future. Instead, you will be well on your way to living in the present moment, living a worry-free life based in peace and love Let's embark on this journey today!

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Retired Guest Blog Entries

The Sidewalk Ends Here…

May 11, 2011

I don’t remember any books from my childhood.  At least, that’s what I thought.  When I first tried to conger up memories of reading, I drew a complete blank.  Yes, I couldn’t think of one single book!  So, I decided to delve a little further into my mind and came up with the cute teddy bear board book my mom read to me as a toddler, Cinderella, and The Princess and the Pea.  I still have that little teddy bear book and will always cherish it.  But, can that really be all I remember reading as a child?  Pulling those memories from the frayed edges of my mind soon buried me under a wave of book covers and authors.  Oh!  What about the Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal?  I read that series incessantly during my teen years.  I remember spending so much money on those books…and it became a challenge…buying, reading, and arranging all those books on my shelf in chronological order.  Then, a little further back I remembered some required reading from middle school…Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume and the life and writings of Edgar Allen Poe.  I admit, I didn’t care for Judy Blume, but I was fascinated with Edgar Allen Poe…The Raven, The Tell Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, and so on.  But, I still wonder why they had Poe as required reading for a 13 year old!  It was probably my fascination with Poe that led to my interest in crime/suspense/mystery novels.  So, it was only logical that by high school, I had moved on to Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Anne Rice. 

I continued to ponder the books I read as a child and found that with all the authors, titles, and genres flowing through my mind, I continuously returned to fourth grade.  It was a magical year, I suppose…a time for trading stickers with my friends, staying out of the clutches of boys chasing girls on the playground, and my first introduction to poetry.  Now, I admit I would have done almost anything to not go outside for recess, as you can imagine!  Quite coincidentally, my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Joyce Sigler, had an exciting project for me and a friend in lieu of play time.  At recess, she would tape a large sheet of white paper on the wall and place the overhead projector in just the right spot for maximum size.  She would then place a transparency on the overhead glass, and my friend and I would carefully trace the letters and drawings onto the plain white paper.  That simple job made me feel important!  And, unbeknownst to me at the time, I learned about poetry and how to make that funny little lower case ‘a’.  I mean, who really writes an ‘a’ like that?  Ultimately, I ended up reading the entire book from which the transparencies were made.  What an exciting experience at such an impressionable time in my young life!

You may wonder what poetry could possibly fill a fourth grader with so much excitement.  This poetry was magical, complete with funny drawings…a book filled of stories such as Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who would not take the garbage out, a crocodile who went to the dentist, and little Peggy Ann McKay who was so sick she could not go to school today!  Yes, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein became my favorite book that year.  That year became one of my most memorable years in school and, by my estimation, served as a catalyst for my growing love of books.

I now share Mr. Silverstein’s books with my own children.  Not only Where the Sidewalk Ends, but A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and The Giving Tree, as well.  Will my fourth grader have the same memories about reading these books as I have?  Probably not, but I hope to make an impression as great as that given to me all those years ago by one very special fourth grade teacher and Shel Silverstein!

*This entry first appeared as a guest post on basicallyamazingashley.com in May 2011