Do you remember last year when the entire world was tracking two Covid “variants of concern” from South Africa and Brazil and how we were being warned by the news that these varients might wreak havoc across the globe? (and then they disappeared).
Or when I wrote of my dread in having a second hernia operation and how it would set me back physically for months and months?
Here are other things – large and small – that I have worried about in the past year:
- Covid restrictions limiting access to the grocery store, the vet and the pool
- Various lingering injuries including: my shoulder, my elbow bursitis, a cracked toe and suspected Lyme disease (that turned out to be a simple ringworm infection)
- Digestive issues, allergies, headaches and other signs of illness
- Covid vaccine availability, side effects and efficacy
- Continued lockdowns and more restrictions
- Food shortages, the Colonial pipeline hack and gasoline shortages locally, price increases
- Pool holiday closures
Looking back, many of these were not worth worrying about. Most turned out to be temporary inconveniences. The few that were more problematic were annoying and frustrating, but not life altering in any long-term significant way.
One thing I’ve learned with this blog is to write something down when I obsess over it. If a thought is consuming space in my head, I’ll create a blog post draft. Usually it’s just a title and a few quick notes. Then I’ll think about it some more and then stop thinking about it until I sit down to write.
When I open my blog to write, I’ll review my drafts folder. More than half of these drafts get deleted without any further writing because they no longer matter, are irrelevant or have resolved themselves.
This morning I was thinking about how much time I spent thinking about my pool being closed for 2 days for Thanksgiving. I thought about how I would fill those two days. I thought about what I needed to do to steel myself for the grief, sadness, and nostalgia that comes to me this time of year. I thought about how I wished the city pools stayed open 365 days a year. I spent at least a few minutes every day for weeks thinking about this.
The day after Thanksgiving, I searched for other pools that might be open. I found one. I went swimming. It was great. It’s a little inconvenient, but I got my swim in and only had to miss 1 day over the holidays.
All that fretting was for naught.
So much of what I think about doesn’t matter. In the long run, very little matters. In the short run, I’m finding the same to be true.
Reading my old blog posts, reviewing my workout log notes and scanning my drafts folder puts hard evidence right in front of my eyes that the thoughts that consume me become inconsequential within days or weeks.
If you are struggling with something in your head, I encourage you to write it down on your calendar, in a notebook, in a log or a blog post.
Then see if it matters when you read it in a week, a month or a year.
It might surprise you.