“Worry is like w rocking chair,” my mother would say.

And, she was right, you know – meaning, lots of energy expended without purposeful action.

In Budhhism, worry is viewed as one of the five hinderances to spiritual enlightenment. That is to say, the restlessness it carries only serves to keep us further from our own miraculous truth.

It distracts us, and changes our focus. With one thought we are shifted from the beauty of outward experience to the limitations of clinging ego. Ironically, our inclination is to remove the impediment – though, our worry only serves to strengthen it.

With practice, our worry is fleeting. Easily recognized, we take measures to help alleviate its impact. We feel it, we breathe through, we let it pass.

But, what happens when worry settles in for a longer stay?

Soto Zen teacher Gil Fronsdal suggests paying attention to the physicality of the sensation. “If there is a lot of energy coursing through the body, imagine the body as a wide container where the energy is allowed to bounce around like a ping pong ball. Accepting it like this can take away the extra agitation of fighting the restlessness.”

Though, ultimately the guidance is to remove our judgement. For, it is within this action that we experience the majority of our pain. The moment we’ve qualified something as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, is the moment we’ve lost our ability to simply experience for what it is:

Fleeting and temporary, at best.

Worry is like a rocking chair, my loves. When we recognize it as such – we can begin to redirect our focus to the true beauty which surrounds.