Worry is a hungry beast.

Worry is a hungry beast. It’s always looking for its next meal.

Sometimes, worry comes from things that aren’t how we think they should be. We have conditions we put (consciously or unconsciously) on feeling okay, and worry comes when those conditions aren’t met.

When my car is fixed, then I’ll feel okay.

When I have enough savings to not worry how much it’ll cost to fix my car, then I’ll feel okay.

When I have enough savings to not worry how much it’ll cost to buy all the art supplies I could dream of, then I’ll feel okay.

When I have the job, the waistline, the partner, the home, the lifestyle, then I’ll feel okay.

When I figure it out, whatever it is, I’ll feel okay.

And maybe these things will make a difference. But maybe they won’t - I’m willing to bet that when the car is fixed, worry will be searching for something else to feed on. And it's always going to find something when we’re judging now as lacking (lacking driveable cars, lacking “enough” savings, lacking the partner we’re dreaming of). 

So what to do? We have this hungry beast roaming loose around our mind causing havoc.

Well, maybe we could tame the beast.

Get to know it. Get to understand it. Befriend it. Get inside its head. Know it inside out. Lose the fear of it. Stand in the face of it and find curiosity and compassion instead of intimidation. Play with it.

Easy? Not really. Possible? Yes.

It takes persistence.

We’ll probably always feel worried and anxious about things - that’s part of the experience of being human. But maybe we can tame the beast. When we recognise it and see the patterns we’re playing into, it loses its power for a while. It’ll be back another day, it’ll try another guise, and it’ll trick us again for a time - but if we’re persistent and wily, committed to taming the beast, sooner or later we’ll notice that the beast is loose, and we’ll contain it once again.

I don’t think we should be out to get the beast. I don’t want to hurt it or kill it or make it go away.

It can start to feel like a game we play - us and the hungry beast.

A game where we get to write the rules.

I you’d like some support writing the rules of a new game for your own hungry beast, get in touch. That’s something we could do together.