Got Worry?


The nature of worry is to enlarge the importance of the matter at hand and exaggerate it in one’s mind until it reaches a point where it seems to be an insurmountable obstacle. The result is that we just continue to worry without being able to do anything constructive about the matter.   
King Solomon states in his Book of Proverbs: “When there is worry in a man’s heart 'yesichena'; let a good thing gladden it” (12:25).  One meaning of the word ‘yesichena’ is to suppress and divert.

In the context of ‘suppress-divert’ it means not to let the mind think about it since the core of worry is exaggeration and the more one thinks about it the more it is magnified.  But how do you succeed at doing this? The second phrase of the verse explains: by diverting the mind to a positive or ‘glad’ matter.  Diverting the mind by thinking of a joyous matter is attainable because we naturally want to feel good. Once we focus on a happy thought it reduces the matter we are worrying about to its proper proportion within the general context of our lives and it thereby becomes manageable.

Excerpted from the Rashak Shlitah by Rabbi Mendel Bluming of Potomac, Maryland

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