once you separate the concept of worry from the concept of problem-solving everything in life becomes thirty percent more bearable
the idea that worrying for its own sake is productive in any way, shape, or form is literally magical thinking. if there's nothing that can be done, i might as well Chill
Sometimes I forget this isn't an obvious complete conclusion and I try to comfort someone by telling them that they have no control over a situation and they're like "Why would you say that??? Now I feel worse???"
I like to put it as:
- it isn't your job to do something about this
- you don't need to do something about this right now
- you have other things that are better to do right now, let's focus on those
and then I swap to those. small things, personal things, most often. in a lot of cases it's "what should you have for dinner tonight?" or setting up for a game! nothing that's so huge it'd require a big group effort, because that's overwhelming. and in that moment, there's no time for that. do small stuff. chill.
