Worry About Jihad

A COMMON SUGGESTION to handle worry is to keep busy, which is good advice as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough for dealing with terrorism. Your mind will not let go of the worry because it is real and needs to be addressed with effective action.

It won't do you or anyone else much good for you to keep busy washing your car and cleaning the garage when your mind is on terrorism. If there was nothing you could do about terrorism, washing your car might be a good response. But activity for the sake of activity is a waste of valuable human resources at a time when we need those resources working to solve the problem.

So what can you do? You can keep busy working directly on solving the problems that confront us (learn more about how to solve problems here). Keep busy extracting all the good ideas you can from your mind. Keep busy defeating terrorism. This will help reduce your worries and at the same time increase our collective ability to deal with the problem. You probably think there is nothing you can really do, but stay with me for a minute.

You have talents, abilities, or knowledge that can be put to use to help defeat terrorism. The best way to handle worry is to put those assets to work. Some people can give speeches. Some can write computer programs. Some can make music. Some can listen well. Some can make a web site. We have a national and an international situation that needs any contribution you can offer.

One thing every one of us can do is come up with ideas and share them. When ideas from your mind enter others' minds, new ideas can form, and some of those ideas are exactly what will work.

Allow your mind to work on the problem, not with anxiety-producing what-if scenarios, but with all the real-world problem-solving ability at your command. Ask yourself, "How could that problem be solved?" Make lists of ideas. You're not under any pressure here, so try to think up outside-the-box ideas. Take your best ideas and share them or put them to work. Even if you came up with a hundred ideas and only one of them is any good, it would be worth the effort. One idea can change the world.

Think. What we need right now are solutions. Many times the solution to a serious problem has come from outside the field. All the experts in the field failed to solve the problem, but an amateur with some commitment solved it.

We need to let out the stops now and solve the problems confronting us. If we rely on the experts, the problems may go unsolved.

Don't try to handle your worry by thinking positively or getting your mind off it. Try to solve the problem instead. Try to be determined, not cheerful.

If you experience a lot of worry, part of your disturbance may be from trying to keep doing what you were doing before. But there is something new and important you need to put your attention on: How to defeat the third jihad. Think of your worry as a power. Then put that power to work on a purpose.

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