Welcome back to another in the series of blogs about how our brain automatically alters our story and reality.

In our brain there is an actual “worry circuit” that is there to help us focus on genuine risks and gives us cause to feel concern so we do something to reduce the risk of a real problem for us.

The worry circuit automatically alters our focus and thoughts, that is its purpose.

If our early conditioning gave us lots of reasons to worry, our perspective may be that we are vulnerable. We may be anticipating bad things will just happen “to us”.

We may even feel that we have to focus on having pleasant thoughts, positive thoughts or let go of our thoughts, because we need to let go of the worry that we have all the time.

Bad things do happen.There is illness and death, there will be times we will be sad about these. There is also a great deal of cruelty, abuse, neglect and starvation in the world. We want to change whatever may be changed and improve the conditions that create suffering, not just become fine with it. We also want to be ourselves, relaxed and capable of opening our heart to enjoy happiness when it is available to us.

Buddha understood how important experiencing joy was. Buddha experienced enlightenment under the Bod-hi tree, when he allowed himself to open his heart and experience joy.

I have experienced suffering and joy. My growth has been about opening my heart so I may experience more joy with those I love.

To worry sometimes, is normal. If we worry too much, it may have been something we picked up from a parent that had worry, insecurity, anxiety or fears, that we do not need to have. Conditioned fear is passed down easily.

It is time we got rid of the insecurity, anxiety and defensiveness because instead of helping us focus on one important thing and fix it, the constant feeling of worry creates stress for us.

Sometimes we feel fear and do not know why, as in a nightmare where something is chasing us we are unable to see.

When we are awake we look for what is causing our fear and we will look for a cause for our feelings until we find one. Too often the person closest is what bothers us (anything is annoying when we feel this way) and we do not want to push away someone we love.

The worry circuit is supposed to help us focus, not alter our perceptions.

When we feel things are happening to us, instead of feeling we have challenges we enjoy, the theme to our life becomes similar to the the Tin Man, Scarecrow or Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz. The Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion all were paralyzed by fear and felt vulnerable, not capable.

The place that creates this feeling of vulnerability is very powerful and our thoughts are an afterthought to the feelings it creates within us.

If the worry circuit is working overtime in us, it can lead to physical problems over time. Stress is bad for our brain and health.

We can easily rewrite the conditioning that makes us feel overly vulnerable.

We can have a feeling we are home, wherever we are. We can have a feeling we are safe, in safe situations. We can feel comfortable in our body when we have no physical ailments. We can be excited about our life. We can dream about our future and open our heart. We can have romance and experiences that are physically, emotionally and spiritually wonderful.

The first step is to do the exercise “I am home”. The next exercise is “I am safe” which must be done when we are safe.These exercises may be found at “I change reality”.

There are many exercises that allow us to open the cabinet of files that create “worry that goes on and on”. When we open the files we can rewrite the feeling we get in our body, so we can have some peace when there is no specific threat that needs our attention immediately. This peace is healing and enlightening.

As we feel stronger and stronger we can in time become assertive, playful, creative, feel beautiful, lovable and regain our romantic interests. When we feel very strong we can work to make the world a better place for others as well.

How we automatically experience ourselves, creates the theme to our story and changes our reality. May you go from strength to strength.

Addendum to the above:

In a situation where someone has O.C.D. it is helpful to both rewrite how they feel about themselves in the situation, as well as have something positive to accomplish instead of worrying, so the circuit can calm down.This usually involves finding a hobby to do instead of repetitive behavior.