Letting Go of Worry and Fear

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. ~ Leo Buscaglia

On New Year's day, a dear friend of mine reminded me about a technique she uses to let go of worry and fear. She lives in the United States where they celebrate New Year's Day each year with the Rose Bowl college football game and the Tournament of Roses parade.

The Rose Bowl is a 110 year tradition held in Pasadena, California and is nationally televised. She and a dear friend of hers have made watching the Tournament of Roses parade an annual tradition. Both of them have a habit that usually makes everyone smile when they hear about it, but which to them, makes total sense.

For five minutes before the parade, they sit in silence and do all their worrying for the year.

Usually, their laughter over this suggestion precludes any silence at all because, as they explain, it's fruitless to waste any time in worrying! "Hurrying and worrying are one of the greatest insults to all that is good and right. It's like putting a frosting made from something that's really yucky over the sweet cake that life really is," says one of the ladies. "We realize that worrying or hurrying goes against the goodness that is life's reality, so we've made a joke about doing our worrying for five minutes each year before the parade begins."

Would this technique work for you? All you'd have to do is look back over any of the hurrying or worrying that you've done in your life time and see if it has accrued anything good at all. Has it? I'm seriously doubting that anyone can say "Oh yes, worry and fear has caused such good in my life!" On the contrary, hurrying and worrying go against all that is good, and place a speed bump in the road of your progress. So why not consider spending five minutes on the first day of each year to get it out of the way for the year and then move into living a rich, full life filled with possibility?

Using a Surrender Box is another technique along the same lines as the above tool. A surrender box is a tool which allows you to surrender your concepts that stop you from moving forward. You might use a shoe box. You might find a wonderfully carved wooden box. Place it in a special place so that it becomes part of the décor and only you know what its true use is.

We all recognize that life brings to our experiences moments of overwhelm when the things we think we have to accomplish get so jumbled in our minds that we cannot see our way to any practical solution. We might think that by juggling dozens of ideas in our minds, we keep things in the forefront so they can be accomplished, but they might actually be delayed because we're holding on to too much!

Here's where the surrender box idea comes into play. Write down what you want to have happen and place the note into a box. When you do this, you have actively set your intention to accomplish the task into action. You give yourself the permission you need to quit fretting over that problem, and know that in the process of life itself, it will get done because that's what you desire.

I want to caution you that some people think "the universe" is taking care of whatever is placed into that box. No, dear friends, you are the universe, and it's your intention to accomplish that gets the job done. I want each of you to be aware that it's you and your mind that is the higher power. Putting your worry and fear into a surrender box allows you to surrender any sense of burden, hurry, worry or a push to achieve, yet allows you to remain present in each moment so that you can automatically take the steps required - now seen more clearly - toward the accomplishment of your desire.

When you realize that you are manifesting your dreams, your desires, and that life itself will create the path for their accomplishment, using a surrender box is a prop, a tool, to help you to undo your burdensome sense of worry and fear. It allows you to step out of your own way so that what you desire that is right and good can manifest. You'll be delighted to return to the box every few months, pull out the slips you've put into it, and see just how many you've completed!