11/17/10

What’s Bothering You Right Now?

Can you say nothing is bothering you?


I usually don’t do those quizzes that go around, I don’t generally like the answers. But I’ve seen the results on a few people’s pages now and I was fascinated by the stats of what is bothering people.

Here is how a typical one would look;

1) : Heartbreak: 15%
2) : Worry: 6%
3) : Guilt: 4%
4) : Sorrow: 39%
5) : Jealousy: 9%
6) : Emptiness: 8%
7) : Nothing: 21%

Maybe you are really in tune with what is bothering you and you could give the percentages without taking a quiz or maybe this is the first time you are thinking about breaking down the things which are bothering you and you are horrified with how many potential ones could be there.

While a quiz isn’t deemed professionally accurate and believe me, I’m not taking it as such, I find it very intriguing to see everyone’s numbers. Unfortunately, I think quizzes like this could possibly just keep a person affixed to their problems but maybe for others it could alert them.

I try to take a lesson from everything in life without allowing any one thing or person to be the teacher. I would hope a quiz like that could let someone know that it isn’t one thing bothering them and they could systematically go through the list and see how each could be conquered. I’ll give you my thoughts on each part with the assumption the averages are equal.

1. Heartbreak; This one to me seems to have the easiest fix but hurts a lot. So far, I don’t think anyone has died of a broken heart and between love songs and time, most people can get past it. Understanding that having our hearts broken is not life-threatening can also assist in healing. It just has that brutal sting like 80s Metal Ballads would suggest.

2. Worry; the Silent Killer. I touched on this in several blogs including ‘What Are You Stewing Over?’. Worry is not only very bad for our insides, but it can be indicative of us wanting to control a situation too much. We worry about our loved ones and to think of them seems to be fine, but worrying ourselves into stomach acid has the potential of taking over our emotions in an obsessive way. Our spirits can’t afford to give away that kind of energy. It’s best to tackle problems using action instead of worry.

3. Guilt; This is another topic we have discussed fairly extensively but always worth bringing up. It’s enormously hard to ask someone for their forgiveness but these days more people seem to know how to do it. We have a bigger problem I think in forgiving ourselves. Understanding that we can’t change the past but improve ourselves has been part of my method in healing from guilt.

4. Sorrow; This is defined as sadness, regret and distress all rolled up into one. It was almost unfair for the quiz to not break it down further. I’ll just view it as sadness. I am finding more often than not that my sadness is an accumulation of all the others while at the same time is a side effect of my pain. Sorrow is very tricky to deal with which is why Depression is so tricky. I couldn’t even begin to deal with my sadness unless I tackled all these other areas one by one.

5. Jealousy; Like Heartbreak, I found a solution to getting over this one. I had to realize that when it comes to relationships, if someone has taken my place, I need to wish them both happiness. I am able to do this by recognizing that I do not own another person. Extreme jealousy can come from having the feeling of ownership or thinking we can control someone. If you see an ex really happy in a relationship, it would stand to reason we should also be happy for them. Jealousy in that instance means you are putting your feelings above theirs but it also indicates that we aren’t seeing the bigger picture or our intention is poorly motivated. Perhaps something better or just different is waiting for us.
But when it comes to our friends and their possessions, jealousy can be ugly when we start attacking people for their slightest weaknesses in order to make what they have seem less. Envy is another thing which is problematic.

6. Emptiness; My largest error in looking at my emptiness was thinking it could be fulfilled by another individual. Relieving others of the responsibility of trying to make me whole freed us all.

7. Nothing; It’s probably inaccurate to think nothing is bothering a person and I have no idea why it is part of the quiz. Maybe you could say 21% of people have nothing bothering them right now, but it’s hard to break down 100% and say 21% of your worry is nothing. I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt and say the quiz is suggesting 21% of the worry is made-up or about nothing. In that case, maybe the word imagination could go in its place. Let me run with that. ;)
Imagining problems that aren’t there is so , uh…problematic. I believe this is the part of our spirit we can channel into art. If your imagination is on full bore, maybe you could go paint, write, draw or work on music.

When I take away the problems which are imaginary, I don’t really have much to worry about at all.

Remind me to never take that quiz, I’ll just worry about my results. ;)

Wondering why full bore couldn’t be spelled b-o-a-r to make it really fun,
Karen :)

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
~Albert Einstein

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