Runaway Mind
October 1, 1994
I am cursed with a runaway mind. Some call me a worry-wart. Others brand me as overly anxious. I'm constantly wondering "What if?" Maybe I inherited the tendency from my mother. More than likely, though, I did it to myself. Maybe it doesn't matter where I got the tendency. One Saturday night I found myself sitting in tears behind the couch in our den. Sunday morning sermons were fast approaching, and I was in no shape to preach. Something was wrong. My emotions were frayed. I had four ulcers. I had high blood pressure. I had to cry out for help. RELIEF TECHNIQUES
The first call I made was to the head of our church's counseling center. "I've been waiting for this," he said. "I've already arranged for you to see a counselor who specializes in executive-level stress." During our fourth session, my new counselor mentioned my tendency to worry. He predicted that, unless I got help, my out-of-control mind could one day destroy my ministry. Ministerial stress is bad enough, he said, without adding self-induced anxiety to it. "You have what I call a runaway mind," he began. "Every thought initiates a physical circuit of chemical changes in the brain. The more we think the same thought over and over again, the deeper we entrench that circuitry. I like to think of it as a racetrack with horses going around and around. The more we worry, the harder it is to stop the horses." My counselor equipped me with all sorts of mental tricks for dealing with anxiety. One was to worry as hard and as much as I wanted for ten minutes--but only for ten minutes. After that I had to put my worries into an imaginary file cabinet and move on. This has often brought relief. A second approach was to imagine the most idyllic scene. Immediately I pictured an oak ...
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