Reiki's 2nd Principle: I will not worry.

Reiki's 2nd Principle for Daily Living: Just for today, I will not worry.

Worry and its cousin, stress, have been conclusively linked to many illnesses such as hypertension, heart disease, and even Alzheimer’s. Yet worry has become a near-constant companion for many of us.

The worst of it is that the more worried you are the less likely you are to think clearly and make good decisions. And, often, the more you need to relieve stress, the less action you take to do so – you postpone your exercise session because you are so stressed, or feel you are not calm enough meditate, etc.

Meanwhile, the worrying continues unabated, stressing you out, making you ill, pushing you towards knee-jerk reactions when you most need to think clearly, communicate well and make cool-headed decisions.

At times like that, it is very useful to take a deep breath and remind oneself of Reiki’s second principle of daily living: Just for today, I will not worry.

All the worrying in the world will not help us avoid the scenarios we dread. Taking preventive action might do that, but worrying is only likely to lead to bad decisions and inappropriate action. So, if we feel we want to plan for a future event, we should calmly make the best decision we can, act on it, then carry on living a calm and serene life.

In the present. Because we only worry when we forget to live in the present. We cannot worry about the present or the past, but only about possible scenarios in the future.
Another helpful idea is to meditate regularly. This helps us stay calm in difficult situations. A regular practice is also easier to keep up through difficult – or worrisome – situations, helping us counteract the tendency to worry.

To learn to live in the present, read Eckhart Tolle’s ground-breaking book The Power of Now.