My personal cure for obsessive worrying

I am a worrier. 

From the time I can remember, I worried. 

When my daughter was a teenager, she told me she saw a sign at a craft fair that fit me perfectly.  It said, "Don't tell me not to worry.  It is the one thing I am really good at, and I have been practicing all of my life."

I laughed, of course, but at that time it was absolutely true.

Having the time to write my stories has changed my worrying behaviors.  I keep my mind busy with the characters and story lines I am working on.  When I worry, I worry about how to resolve the problems my characters are having, and I can actually do that.

I have control over the outcomes in my stories in a way I never will in reality.   For me, the trick to breaking the obsessive worrying was as easy as substituting fictional characters and their dilemmas for my real life imagined problems.

Worrying never solved anything.  It steals the joy from the present for a future situation that may never occur.

Worrying about my storylines or my characters brings joy to the moment as I can play fairy godmother to my characters and create positive outcomes for them.

There are times when my characters suffer, and when things don't go how they would like them to go.  But in the end, they always persevere, they overcome their difficulties, and they move forward with their lives in a positive way.

Just like most of us.  I hope reading my stories provides people with a respite from their worries, at least for a little while.  And I am so grateful for the respite from my worries that they have provided me.