I was playing squash one Sunday morning with Jeff Sutton, a neuroscientist and good friend, when I told him I was writing about people who worry too much. He instantly responded, "But worry is good! You have to worry to survive!" He then went on to talk about worry in the most animated, unworried tones, as he whipped the ball against the wall with a sharp smack. "Fear is wired in. Deeper than any other feeling." Smack! "Worry is good! If you don't want to worry, be a plant!" Smack! "Worry gives successful people an edge."

Jeff, of course, is right. There is such a thing as wise worry. It is our reaction to worry that counts. For winners, worry is a reason to take positive action. They use fear as a fuel.

Imagine the bow of a violin as life experience and the strings of the violin as our biological makeup. The bow of life's experience draws across the violin strings of biology to produce the music of life. What kind of music we make depends on both the bow and violin. And now, with advances in medicine, psychotherapy, and other techniques, the music wafting from that violin is truly in your own hands.

Excerpted from Worry by Edward M. Hallowell. Copyright 1997 by Edward M. Hallowell. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books.

This entry was posted by Mandy, on Wednesday, May 13, 2009. You can leave your response.