Theme of
this Zoom meeting: Worry
©2020 by Richard E. Gordon. Duplication prohibited without author's permission
Last updated 7/29/2020
With months of the virus pandemic behind us – and around us – and who knows how long ahead of us, is it any surprise that worry may be casting a dark shadow on us and those we love, and perhaps on others who have joined us tonight in this zoom get-together.
Quotations
1. Without referring to the dictionary, what is your own definition of a worry?
2. What are positive ways people in general can deal with worry?
3. What are negative ways, too, that some people try to overcome worry?
4. Have you found any positive ways especially helpful to you in dealing with worry? If not comfortable in referring to yourself, without giving away identities, what are some other positive ways that someone you know manages worry?
5. Can you describe a breathing technique that helps in diminishing the stress caused by worry?
6. How can listening to the news affect your worry level? What advice might you give others regarding exposure to the news, especially broadcasts concerning the virus?
7. If you were a political leader, what might you say and do to lower the worry levels in those whom you represent?
8. If you could gain insight on how a political candidate handles worry, would you use this insight to help you determine if this candidate was worthy of your vote?
9. If you were a parent of young children, how might you help them deal with worry as they grow into adulthood?
10. Should schools help teach children how to handle worry in positive ways? What teaching approaches might they use?
11. Were there other times during your lifetime that our society as a whole faced as much or more worry than what surrounds us today? Going beyond your lifetime, how about other times in history?
12. Would we all be better off if humans were immune to worry?
13. What possible pluses could arise out of this worry-producing pandemic?
14. Considering our meeting today, share with us any new idea you’ve gained about worry – perhaps a new way of looking at one aspect of worry.
15.
If you were the moderator today, how might you lead the meeting to lessen the
worry perhaps felt by some of our participants? Would you wait to call on only
those who volunteer to add to the discussion? Does the thought that the
moderator might call on you cause some worry?
Quotations
Feel free to comment on these quotes. To view the source, just click on the
underlined link in the beginning of each quote.
1. “Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.”― The Light in the Heart
2.
“Worry
does not empty tomorrow
of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
― Clippings
from My Notebook
3. “If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.”― The Light in the Heart
“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.”―
5. “Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” --Arthur Somers Roche
6. “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”-- Leo Buscaglia
7. “There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” --Mahatma Gandhi
8. If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. - Dale Carnegie
9. It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. - George MacDonald
10. We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies. - Etty Hillesum