Never worry until your heart stops beating

I read this quote today….”Worry is the misuse of imagination” – Dan Zadra

The more I have thought about it today, the more I have decided that I love that quote. Being a writer I have a very vivid imagination. I use it all the time to create storylines, characters, problems, resolutions, other  worlds, etcetera. I dream about stories, I daydream about stories. This is a good thing right? Well, yes it is, but I also have spent years holed up in my imagination afraid to step into the light. I’ve allowed my imagination to create a world where no one wants to read what I write, where people sit in judgment on the thoughts I express and where criticism is the worst thing that could happen to me. Its just as vivid a world to me as the ones my characters live in. That voice of darkness whispers through my mind just like the voices of the characters that I write. I have spent so much time wrapped up in that imaginary world that I didn’t even realize it was imaginary. I know…How sad is that?!

However, what I love about that quote is that worry is simply the misuse of the imagination. That means I can start at any moment to use it correctly. It’s a choice. I can choose to let my imagination “run away with me” or I can choose to “run away with my imagination”. There is a vast difference between the two and as I am willing to look at where my imagination has taken me along for a ride of fear and doubt, it creates the opportunity for me to take back the driver’s wheel and direct my imagination where I want it to go. Sounds productive…sounds healthy…now, if only it were that simple.