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ANXIETY

Hope’s serious rival.

Hobgoblins we make friends with.

When the inquisitor becomes the inquisition.

Obsession’s collaborator whispering what might be.

The detours we often choose upon too much reflection.

Self-spawned spurs incessantly pricking its progenitor.

A comforting, debilitating habit that survives and thrives with rationalizations.

Integral part of defense measures; effective when properly focused and proportioned.

A confidant whose concern belies an insidious propensity for taking control of your life.

Support for a muddle of emotions, fear, anger, desperation, that is strengthened by perceptions of the ‘pernicious’.
 

• Perhaps you should ask what your worries have accomplished.
   
• Perhaps your optimism will always be jostled by unexpected encounters.
   
• Perhaps you should only be concerned with concern when it is too comforting.
   
• Perhaps what happens outside your house can never bother you unless you invite it in.
   
• Perhaps developing the habit of acceptance is the only safeguard against emotional bondage.
   
• Perhaps you face an age-old dilemma: Do you overcome anxiety with ignorance or knowledge?
   
• Perhaps life is a succession of choices; perhaps too much speculation about possibilities impedes progress.
   
• Perhaps your preoccupation with appearance is unnecessary since everyone else is looking for a mirror.
   
• Perhaps what ‘ages’ you the most are not life’s challenges, frustrations and heart aches, but the mental anguish you put yourself through worrying about them.
   
• Perhaps you find tranquility in your garden by enjoying your roses; perhaps adorning your house with them is considered; perhaps you contemplate the thorns, the inevitable withering and early demise; perhaps this worry about worry drives you crazy!!
  
  trepidation or just complacency inhibiting you??

ESSAY ON ANXIETY by EDWIN O’SHEA

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