Many of our worries can originate from the feeling of not being prepared enough. You feel like the future is going to be a disaster because you’ve not prepared and chronic illness can be a barrier in the way of your preparation.
It’s a very frustrating situation to be in, the feeling of having no preparation and no hope to prepare. If you have no energy and no resources, then how are you meant to prepare? One of the issues with chronic illness, is that it affects your work and your finances and this can be a massive source of worry not just because you worry over everyday financials, but the future financial situation also.
It’s part of the mental situation of feeling stuck and not moving forward. Not moving forward with improvements to your symptoms, not moving forward in terms of enjoying your life, and not moving forward in terms of creating a secure life financially and emotionally.
Commonly, you might feel like you’re moving backwards. Financial difficulties are getting worse and worse. New symptoms are cropping up that you aren’t used to, and can’t tolerate easily. Your life has less and less enjoyment to it. Depression and despair are almost guarantees in this situation.
To make this worse, when you age, time seems to fly by, it seems you are running out of time, running out of life to live. Doom seems ever closer and it’s easy for worries to get out of control. Especially when your body and mind are assaulted daily by pain signals, fatigue or various symptoms that cause you to suffer.
There is no real solution to any of this. Thinking of a solution is a trap. The real issue is that we’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. As cliché as it sounds, we’re aren’t being kind to ourselves. When you’re in a situation of ill health and no way out, it does in your solidify a future with little hope, and it might be true or it might not be. Either way, over worrying isn’t helping. We have to accept the worry as it is, and then let it go and move our focus on to something else.
Ruminating on worries and imagining them as real, is obviously a waste of time. It can be hard to give up the habit. It can be hard to even realise you’re doing it, so that you can stop yourself. It’s a completely natural thing to do when faced with such suffering. It’s already so bad, that it’s normal to think it’s going to be worse. That you won’t be able to handle the dangers that tomorrow brings, let alone the dangers that the far future brings.
It is admittedly easy to just say, “stop worrying, it’s not helping you”. But it’s the only logical choice to move towards. Worrying is a burden and a coping mechanism that is badly managed by the human mind. Fear is a strong motivator and it grabs our attention, it’s why the mainstream media spreads it so much, fear garners attention like nothing else in our psyche,
The common trope of being kind to yourself, is something that is still understated I believe. It sounds dismissive but the wisdom in it, can be something that eventually gets through and might lessen your burdens even just a little.
True, don’t get yourself trapped!!
Treat yourself and live in the moment!