By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Worry is a hard nut to crack. Many of us find ourselves surrounded at home or at work with people who make negatives assessments about what is or might be happening. Societal pressures compound the problem by giving us reasons to worry about looking good, making a positive impression, being a success, or staying safe. It’s easy to get in the habit of negative talk about ourselves and the world around us.
If you’ve ever tried to break the worry habit, you are certainly not alone. We identify with Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein who calls herself “a recovering worrier.” We admit that worry is real (and sometimes justified) but we are determined not to let it control us. Lucky for us a brave and insightful group of spiritual teachers from all traditions have been working with worry instead of running away from it or trying to get rid of it altogether.
For this 21-day program, we have collected a treasure trove of insights and practices from these teachers to help us discover the lessons of worry and how to move through it. Among these teachers from Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, New Thought, and psychology are Hugh Prather, Wayne Muller, Eknath Easwaran, Sylvia Boorstein, Ajahn Chah, Donna Schaper, Sharon Salzberg, Thomas Keating, Sophy Burnham, Piero Ferrucci, and Harold Kushner.
Although none of us will ever be worry-free, we can with mindfulness and spiritual practice give it less airtime and put our minds under new management. Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks — 21 days — to break a bad habit or to start a new practice. This daily program consists of 21 emails, each with an excerpt from a spiritual book and suggestions for reflections, discussions, and practices based on the reading. Participants will then share their responses to the wisdom and their experiences with the exercises in the online Practice Circle. Join us and see how working with worry can change your life.