Editor's note: The following monthly perspective was written by National Horseman's publisher, Allison Lambert, appearing in the July 2016 issue.
Let go, and let God.
By Allison Lambert
Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease, typically about something with an uncertain outcome. It is a powerless feeling; one that can overcome you in a moment's notice, making it nearly impossible to think of anything else. Whether waiting on a test result or a loan approval, or experiencing nervousness for an upcoming event, it is a feeling most commonly triggered by an outcome that is out of our control, rendering us powerless against the reel of negative thoughts inside our heads. However, when broken down and simplified, anxiety is nothing more than repeatedly experiencing disappointment in advance. So why do we continue torturing ourselves in this way?
Agonizing about the worst possible outcome of a situation mentally prepares us for the possibility of it happening, in essence, softening the blow. We train ourselves to “hope for the best, but expect the worst.” And although we think this rationalization is helping, in the long run, it is actually harming us much more.
They say a day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work; it can leave you mentally, physically and emotionally spent, largely because of the unnecessary stress it causes your brain. As an adaptive response to stress, our bodies automatically adjust the serum level of various hormones, including adrenaline, thyroid, cortisol and CRH. These hormone changes can lead to a multitude of negative side effects, like premature aging, depression, infertility, heart disease or even a stroke. An anxiety attack can be so powerful that it mimics the symptoms of a heart attack. We give so much power to our worry that we let it become detrimental to our health, especially when the majority of our anxiety-causing thoughts never even transpire.
Studies prove that roughly 85 percent of the things we worry about never even happen. Of the 15 percent that do happen, 97 percent of subjects discovered that they could either handle the outcome better than expected, or it taught them a lesson worth learning. That means that 97 percent of what we worry about is nothing more than unnecessary, mind-punishing, hypothetical exaggerations. Like a rocking chair, it gives us something to do but gets us absolutely nowhere.
The truth is, worrying will never change the outcome of what is meant to be, and it won’t make bad news any easier to accept when you hear it. It will not change the future—it will just completely ruin the present. Don’t waste another moment on worry. Trust that everything is part of a plan that is out of your control, and know that in the end, it will work out the way it was supposed to. As Gandhi once said, “There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety, so just let go, and let God do the rest.