Do Not Engage with Your Demon

A friend once asked me how she can deal with excessive worrying. I told her to make a list of all the stuff that is circulating in her head. Her job prospects, her husbands job prospects, the health concerns for herself and her family, the academic prospects for her children, the money worries, etc., etc. It turned out that the list was quite long but in the end she managed to cram 95 percent of all the stuff that constantly popped up to the surface into a number of categories. I gave her the advice to never ever engage with any of these voices. How can you? Say if you are worried about cancer you can take all the exams in the world today and tomorrow you might get the illness nevertheless. As a matter of fact, cancer is a perfect example of a disease that probably will show up one day if you keep on worrying about it. Do not engage with your demon, instead say "Very interesting, you might be right, but here is what I am doing about this concern right now". So when the devil's advocate speaks up, just keep on doing what you have been doing. Only if you have nothing creative to do, chances are your mind will be the devil's workshop.

Never engage with your demon. Your demon is nothing but hot air if you engage with the now, but he is real when you engage with him. Do not engage, but do monitor. Be mindful of the voice of the endless chatter of the mind without condoning or condemning. How does it make sense to criticize your demon, it would be you talking to yourself. When you monitor what is going on beneath the surface you will shine away the darkness. My friend ended up being surprised about how circular her mental attacks on herself were. And when she ended up taking constructive actions for each and every concern she ended up being able to sleep much better and her mood got visibly better. Perhaps one day she will be worry-free, perhaps she never will, but not engaging with her demon put her into contact with a joy and calm she hadn't experienced in quite a while.