Meditations for People Who (May) Worry Too Much

Informationen zum Autor Anne Wilson Schaef Klappentext Anne Wilson Schaef's bestselling Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much invited women to do less and live more. In this wise and graceful sequel to that beloved book, which is also a collection of daily meditations, Schaef encourages us to give up the worries that trouble so many of our lives. Schaef helps us to smile at our worries and encourages us to re-examine our discontent and our desperate need to control our lives. She ponders with us the true nature of love, solitude, creativity, friendship, sorrow, intimacy, and all the experiences that go into making a life. Best of all, she inspires us to respect our own particular inner rhythm and intuitive wisdom, to live this moment, now, with trust and joy. Zusammenfassung Anne Wilson Schaef's bestselling Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much invited women to do less and live more. In this wise and graceful sequel to that beloved book! which is also a collection of daily meditations! Schaef encourages us to give up the worries that trouble so many of our lives. Schaef helps us to smile at our worries and encourages us to re-examine our discontent and our desperate need to control our lives. She ponders with us the true nature of love! solitude! creativity! friendship! sorrow! intimacy! and all the experiences that go into making a life. Best of all! she inspires us to respect our own particular inner rhythm and intuitive wisdom! to live this moment! now! with trust and joy.

Auteur

Anne Wilson Schaef

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Anne Wilson Schaef's bestselling Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much invited women to do less and live more. In this wise and graceful sequel to that beloved book, which is also a collection of daily meditations, Schaef encourages us to give up the worries that trouble so many of our lives.
Schaef helps us to smile at our worries and encourages us to re-examine our discontent and our desperate need to control our lives. She ponders with us the true nature of love, solitude, creativity, friendship, sorrow, intimacy, and all the experiences that go into making a life. Best of all, she inspires us to respect our own particular inner rhythm and intuitive wisdom, to live this moment, now, with trust and joy.

Échantillon de lecture
Introduction
 
Never, in a million years, could we have predicted the national and international success of Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much. True, it had a great title (and I had to fight over the title) which “hit a nerve” in American women and women around the world. Yet, I do not believe that the title alone could have made that book the million-plus international bestseller it is today. I have received so many letters from women the world over stating how helpful this book has been and what a daily companion it has become. I feel especially gratified about this response because this little book represents the first time I ventured forth with my philosophy of life and the way of living I am teaching in the Living in Process work. My previous books were more focused upon my observations of the world around me, with hints of my personal philosophy. In Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much, I put my beliefs on the line and they resonated.
 
I had thought of writing a sequel, Meditations for Women Who Are Recovering from Doing Too Much. Yet, I wanted to get on with something new (I’m an Aries).
 
Then I sat down and thought, What else do people in this culture do that robs them of their ability to be fully alive as much as doing too much does? Then it hit me—worry. Worry is a national and an international pastime. Yet, no worrier wants to worry about whether or not they worry too much. Somehow, worrying doesn’t have the same status as “doing.” So, I decided to write a book for people who may worry too much.
 
I did not personally know of many quotes on worry and the quotation books seemed woefully bare on this topic. Then I asked the Living in Process Network to send me ideas and thoughts they had on worry. I began to listen to what people said in conversations and I put out the word that I wanted quotes about worry. The result has been a deluge. Indeed, worry seems to be a favorite way to while away hours (days, weeks, years—lifetimes). In a few short months, I had more quotations on worry than I could possibly use. I found out some interesting ideas about worry. Generally, information about worry seemed to break down into two general categories: 1) the process of worrying, and 2) the content of worrying. The process of worrying includes such issues as how people worry, when they worry, where they worry, and how worry affects them. The content of worrying is what people worry about—well, almost everything—children, money, self-esteem, health, what other people think of them, the weather, promotions, the future, the past, the present. You name it and someone is “worrying about it at this very minute—as we speak.
 
I did not want to get too scientific about worry—actually I don’t want to get too scientific about anything—and I did find it interesting to look at processes, topics, and trends. We are a nation—yea, a world—of worriers.
 
I have to admit that I have not worried much about this book. I decided to let this book worry itself into being. Also, I want to say that I have played with the concept of worry. I know that it is a serious business for those who do it—especially those who do it a lot—and I always find it very healing to laugh with myself and others, and for us to play with ourselves. As I have said before, with the rise of Western psychology and psychotherapy, we have tended to put our garbage on the altar, see it as sacred (only the paid professional priests and priestesses “dare” to look at it and pick through it, and even they are sworn to secrecy!!), and worship it. Enough! Let’s look at what we do, laugh at our foibles, share them with others, learn from them, and move on with the living of our lives.
 
I hope this little book hits a nerve, too, and offers a possibility—a possibility for living, which is, after all, what we are here to do.
 
 
JANUARY 1
 
Worry
It is estimated that more than thirteen million American adults are chronic worriers. The National Institute of Mental Health says anxiety disorders are America’s most commonly reported mental-health problems.
AMY H. BERGER
 
My goodness. Do you think that this means thirteen million people need this book? I hope so!
 
Seriously, though, we seem to have developed an epidemic and we don’t even know it. Almost everyone seems to worry about something and, yet, we rarely talk about worry as a problem. Maybe that is because worry is so integrated into the way we have come to live and be in the world that we don’t even notice it.
 
There are many facets to worry. Worry is not simple nor is it simply addressed. We could worry about worry and then worry about our worrying about worry. But, why chase our tails.
 
Clearly, we need to explore worry, we need to understand worry, we need to share experiences and wisdom about worry. And, most of all, we need some relief from worry. It’s a new year and we have 366 daily meditations to feed and heal us.
 
There’s a certain solace in knowing that I am not alone: I have thirteen million worriers to keep me company.
 
 
JANUARY 2
 
Being Ourselves
Strangulation or choking is the first definition of WORRY in Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, which details its roots in German, French, and English with that meaning. WORRY can immobilize or choke th…