Last night there was a funding drive on PBS involving Andrew Wyle (I think – the spiritual leader fella). On it he said something very profound, yet also very shallow, and I’m trying to work out which side of that I come down on.

He related a small lesson he learned from a teacher of his (I had the impression it was a spiritual teacher rather than an educational one). The teacher advised him not to worry, because there are only two situations you can worry about. First there are the ones you can’t control, and there’s no point worrying about those, because worrying won’t change anything. Then there are the ones where you do have control, but you don’t need to worry because you have control!

Simple, really. And something I’ve tended to live by I think. But there are times when people get overwhelmed, even me! And I’m wondering if that’s because they’ve lost sight of our little truism, or if the truism isn’t all that true.

Clearly it is very normal for people to get overwhelmed, maybe when things are going badly at work or home, or just when they are busier than normal. It’s also obvious that people differ in this regard. Some can cope with anything, others are fine at work, but can’t deal with stress at home. And some people are almost disabled with fears about things that are either routine, or just won’t happen.

I’ll ponder more later…