"There is no benefit in worrying.."

"Too much self-centered attitude brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering."

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever." - Dalai Lama 

The weather was beautiful yesterday morning. The sun was shining and the sky felt vast and clear. I woke up feeling empowered and energised. However, as the day became cloudy and grey, I found my mood close in as well so that by night I couldn't sleep at all as I repeated the same commentaries in my head "How long will this last?", "Will my family be okay?", and, "This situation is really hard for me". As the day went by I added such colour, texture and flavour to the negative ideas I had of my own situation to the point that this initial trickle of fear had become a drowning river of self-pity.  In hindsight, it was amazing how, besides the weather and my attitude, nothing else had really changed. So although this quote bluntly attacks my ego, it feels like it hits the nail on the head. In Lama Zangmo's Q and A session this week, she said that we should, "not give in to fear, because that's just thinking and distraction". Therefore, we can become aware of how much of the fear and suffering we are experiencing is actually in this present moment, and how much of it is an attitude we are creating. Yesterday, the latter was the issue, and how empowering as today I can really try to drop these distractions. Hopefully, in doing so, the grip of fear from the current, and ever-present, uncertainty of life, can be disrupted. What a source of relief this could be.