Worry

I try not to worry, and I'm better about it than I used to be. But my mind is always fast-forwarding to doomsday scenarios based on the smallest of issues.

For example, I'm doing my taxes (or actually, my CPA is doing them), and for a variety of reasons, they're more complicated than they've been in years past. So I've been struggling to clear my mind of the doomsday scenario where I'm audited, the IRS finds a $50 error, and I'm off to federal prison for ten years.

I have to remind myself that not every sniffle or sneeze is the avian flu.

In all the times I've imagined some sort of total disruption in my life on the horizon, it's come true only a couple of times. In the vast majority of cases, things weren't nearly as bad as I had anticipated they would be.

Part of my continuing fascination with the 'Cold Mountain strategy' is that following the example of the reclusive Zen/Taoist poet would physically isolate me from all the things that make me feel threatened. But it probably wouldn't help my state of mind.