I also don’t understand why at nearly every restaurant there is someone with a cell phone talking loud enough to be heard in three counties. Is it to impress folks with fact he/she has a phone? It’s really not that big a deal. Some underprivileged school kids also have them.

And, what ever happened to private conversations? I long for days when people went into phone booths – and closed door. Is there no sense of privacy anymore? Who wants to overhear conversations about private business deals or someone’s love life?

For five straight days, while Dawn Princess was at sea, we were out of range for cell phones. It was wonderful. The moment we made land, like smokers starved for nicotine, many began to dial frantically. I began looking for a “no phoning section.”

BARBER-OSOPHY: Somewhat like money, electronic devices make wonderful servants and lousy masters.

Copyright 2004, Sumerlin Enterprises.

Permission is granted for you to copy this article for distribution as long as above copyright and contact information is included. Please reference or include a link to www.barber-osophy.com.

Emotions are valuable to us because they give us information, and in this case your worry is telling you there’s a legitimate problem that needs addressing, but consider this analogy. It was often bandied about in media, and is kind of a well-known fact that stock market doesn’t like uncertainty. We were often told that once election was over, whichever way it went, market would settle down and start to rise again.

Well, we don’t function well with uncertainty either. Once a decision is made, we can settle down and start to rise again. Worrying is like remaining in that state of indecision. After all, we can’t always be sure of any outcome.

When you think about it, what we worry about often never comes true, and things that will really whack us are things we could never have conceived of. 911 would be a good example of this. How could we have conceived of something like that happening? There couldn’t have been one person in US lying awake at night worrying that a terrorist airplane would crash into World Trade Center, but I bet there were at least 100 people in New York City at time worried about a presentation they had to give that day that never occurred because of terrible event that no one could have anticipated.

And remember all recommendations that were made for coping with 911? One of them was to do something to help; to choose one thing to do that would help others or help cause, and therefore alleviate that helpless feeling. It was a matter of taking action.

Don’t get into habit of worrying. If there’s a challenge in your life, face it and do best you can to address it. You can borrow strength from challenges you’ve faced before. If you’re worrying about something you can’t do anything about, you’re wasting time and energy that could be focused positively somewhere else. If you’re worrying just to worry, seeking out possible candidates for this task, there’s something a lot better you could be doing with your mind.

The first step is to become aware of your own worry patterns. The second step is to know that you have a choice. Then you can learn to divert yourself from mindless worry that robs you of life energy and pleasure.

©Susan Dunn, MA, Personal Life coach, http://www.susandunn.cc . Offering coaching, Internet courses and ebooks for your personal and professional development. mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for free ezine. I train and certify EQ coaches. Email for info on fast, affordable, comprehensive, no-residency program. Start immediately.