Values

The value of an event, activity, or outcome can easily be enhanced through choosing for it to be. Choosing that is, more or less, under one's control. As long as that is remembered, one can re-establish the value gained when one wishs. This does not really have to be left to the availability nor the agreement of any other. Simply by internalizing an external experience, one can determine how one is affected and choose to act accordingly. This is seldom the case, however. One usually lets others determine his/her values.
It appears we react, all too often, to judgments we make about which others have informed us. By this we mean, someone has influenced us to think one way or another about what we do. We form preconceived opinions about how we should act and think. We are more likely to be concerned with the bad rather than the good. The major reason for this is that the good is expected and taken for granted, the bad is what everyone stays on guard for. And with this, sadly, there is always a large component of guilt in what is judged bad. Although there is a positive element in guilt, we need to consider carefully whether this leads to changes that will free us of the guilt, or whether it will just lead to low self-value. The only reasonable solution to getting rid of the bad part we don't like, is to stop choosing it, or at least stop acting on it.

Confusing Thinking With Internal Action
All of our action that we have any choice in results from our thinking. Of course, we do a lot of thinking that doesn't necessarily result in external action. Many times we just engage in some internal action. There is a big difference in just thinking and acting internally on this thinking. Thinking and the thoughts that are the content of this process are essentially neutral. They just constitute the cognitive content of the human mind. It is when we internally act or put content to this process, viz., worry, fret, feel bad, get upset, etc. that we find our thinking to be leading us in an undesired direction. Because the very content of our thinking is easily confused with the process of our thinking, we can easily put ourselves in a mental dilemma. When we acknowledge our thoughts to be only the process of thinking, we can accept thought as a blackboard on which we write the content. With that in mind--in your thoughts--try to write your worries on the slate that is your thinking. Just writing the worries is not worrying. It is only when you start to fret, become agitated, get nervous, etc., regarding what you have written, that worry begins.

The Impossibility Of Worry
Worry seems to be a source of agitation for many. It has usually been found senseless and futile to tell a worrier to stop worrying. In the "worry" exercise above, we suggest that we look closely at what we write on the slate and mentally erase what we can't do anything about. This can more easily be accomplished with a real blackboard and chalk, but that would not help to internalize the difference in thinking content and the thinking process.
Now, let's turn to examining the value of worry. First of all, worry is motivational. You might do something about your worries if you worry long enough or hard enough. At least you might get someone else worried enough so that they might do something. It might not be anything that is going to reduce your worry, but that is inconsequential to our considerations of values. Secondly, worry gives you something to do in place of doing something to reduce your worry. Worry gives you a reason for your thought processes. After all, you would not want a blackboard in your mind without anything to write on it, would you? Of course, you could make the content of your thinking the ways you could avoid worry. Worry as mental content stimulates many of the bodily processes. Some stress and strain, some dynamic activity, is valuable to create motion and drive. This type of agitation gives others in your environment something on which to put their attention and probably could contribute to giving them something else to do except worry. They should not concentrate much on worry if you are going to take care of that.
Worry, then, can be classed as an abstraction, a part of our cognitive process that exists only within our mental functioning. It is a semblance of our thinking to which we have applied an abstract label. It accomplishes nothing concrete except to occupy us while we could be turning our talents to more worthwhile pursuits. Worry becomes something like a delusion or hallucination that we believe exists, but it doesn't. Our original work gives other descriptors that will give credence to the impossibility of worry. Refer to it, please.