jama rattigan's alphabet soup

Hi, Jama! Don't worry; be happy. :D


Tarie
Into the Wardrobe

I love this post so much I want to marry it. It describes my state of being to a T. My yoga teacher is always talking to us about the body-mind-spirit benefits of detachment, but alas, I worry that I'll never actually achieve that blissful state. Not in this lifetime, anyway.

:)

My dog volunteers to eat your worrywart doll. And he says he likes you.

I'm sorry, but "worry wort on a roll" just makes me laugh too hard to worry right now. :)

I agree that writers have it the worst because of our nature. In fact, this week, after a bout of irrational worrying, I told my husband that from now on, I was vowing to only use my "what if" powers for the GOOD!!! He laughed. Yeah, riiiight.

My mother gave me a set of worry dolls in high school. I used them often. Even if my problems didn't go away, having a place to "put" those feelings certainly helped.

Today my perfect cure for worry is baking. This week alone I've made pound cake, coffee cake and molasses cookies. What does that tell you?

This sounds all too familiar! I never would have guessed you were a worrier, though! :)

Be glad you don't have children of your own - you'd REALLY worry then! :P I've found a lot of my anxieties have shifted since becoming a mom. Now I don't worry if I don't feel well - I worry if THEY don't feel well. (Keep in mind there's two of them and one of me, so the worry increased exponentially.) I think I need to break out my Anxiety and Phobia Workbook - and maybe get my six-year-old to join me!

Since I only wrote fanfiction, not published works, my main worries related to writing were: "What if it sucks and no one likes it?" Sure, the ideal is that you're writing mainly for yourself, but there certainly is that element that you'd like some praise for your efforts in the bargain. :D

The scarier what ifs are these sort: What if I get everything I think I want? What if I actually succeed at what I'm doing? What if everything turns out right? Because there's no guarantee that happiness turns up at the end. (And there's always that other shoe, waiting to fall.)

I'm laughing in recognition. (It's funny because it's true.)

Especially "Shouldn't I be a better writer by now?"

Did you ever see the movie "Adaptation?" They voice the interior monologue of a screenwriter, which is sometimes a stream of worried consciousness ...

Jama, a wonderful post as usual! One worry you should never have: "Will anyone read this post?" (And probably a corollary to that would be that yes, you will write your way into another great story and your readers will love it!)

But the list in Beaumont's worry poem does cut close to the bone, doesn't it? When I get find myself getting wound up in worry -- I pray... Yep. And the worries kind of evaporate.

- violet

I have a set of worry dolls, HOWEVER: I need more. Or another set (or two). I am forever "borrowing trouble," as my husband says. Glad to know I'm not alone! (And the "why aren't I a better writer" thing never goes away, I'm sorry to say).

We all worry at some point. I started worrying more when I had children. I hate to say I'm pretty overprotective of my children so I do worry mostly about them.
Sometimes I choose not to worry about things that I can't change, and I do try to keep a positive outlook,because I do truly think it helps!

When I was a child, my father used to tell me to stop worrying or I'd "What If" myself to death. :-)

I'm a worry wart, too! But I'm getting better about not sweating the small stuff.

Kimberly Willis Holt