Focus On What You Know

An anxious brain is a busy brain. It can't sit still and be quiet.

Instead, it scurries around picking up any tiny thing it can find and starts picking it apart, looking for something to worry about.

The anxious brain makes mountains out of molehills by telling you lie after lie.

So, here's today's suggestion: focus on what you know rather than on what you suppose.

Back when COVID was running rampant and everyone’s anxiety was high, I kept my focus on what I knew:

1. I am alive.

2. I feel fine.

3. I have enough food in the house to satisfy my appetite.

4. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are alive.

5. I have toilet paper!

But my anxious brain wanted to take me by the hand and drag me around in search of trouble by saying:

What if something happens to you? What will happen to everyone who depends on you? Who will take care of them? How will the funeral be handled? Can everyone come who wants to? Will they have to cremate my body to destroy the virus?

You feel fine right now, but that virus takes days before it shows symptoms. What if you have the virus right now and are infecting everyone in the house? What if you get sick and have to go to the hospital? Will you need a ventilator? Will there be a ventilator available? Will there even be a bed available in the hospital?

What if the food in the house runs out? Will there be food available at the store? Will someone read this post and decide to break in your house and steal your food? What if you catch them? Will you shoot them? Will they shoot you? Will they kidnap your wife? What will they do to her? Will you ever see her again?

You heard your wife cough during the night. Does that mean she's getting sick with the virus? Is she going to die? How will you survive without her? Will you ever marry again? Would she be upset with you if you did? What would your children and grandchildren think of you if you remarried? And what if the new marriage doesn't work out and they divorce you? What will people think about you?

* Taken from The Wit and Wisdom of David Johnson, Volume I1: The Hairy Catfish Caper.