27/04/2026
Ridding the Mind of Worry, Fear, and Nervousness ...Paramhansa Yogananda
Worries are often the result of attempting to do too many things too quickly. Do not “bolt” your mental duties, but thoroughly masticate them, one at a time, with the teeth of attention, and saturate them with the saliva of good judgment. Thus, will you avoid worry indigestion. Do not feed your mind with mental poisons of worries. Learn to remove the causes of your worries without permitting them to worry you. If you are suffering from mental “ill health,” go on a mental fast. A health-giving mental fast will clear the mind and rid it of the accumulated mental poisons from a careless mental diet. Go on worry fasts. Three times a day, shake off all worries. At seven o’clock in the morning, say to yourself, “All my worries of the night are cast out, and from 7 to 8 a.m. I refuse to worry, no matter how troublesome are the duties ahead of me. I am on a worry fast.” From noon to 1 p.m., say, “I am cheerful, I will not worry.” In the evening, between six and nine o’clock, while in the company of your spouse or hard-to-get-along-with relatives or friends, mentally make a strong resolution: “Within these three hours I will not worry. I refuse to get vexed, even if I am nagged.
No matter how tempting it is to indulge in a worry feast, I will resist the temptation. I must not sabotage my peace-heart by shocks of worries. I cannot afford to worry—I am on a worry fast.” After you succeed in carrying out worry fasts during certain hours of the day, try fasting for one or two weeks at a time. Then, try to prevent the accumulation of worry poisons in your system entirely. Whenever you find yourself indulging in a worry feast, go on a partial or complete worry fast for a day or a week. Whenever you make up your mind not to worry, stick to your resolution. You can calmly solve your most difficult problems, putting forth your greatest effort, and at the same time absolutely refuse to worry. Tell your mind, “I am satisfied and happy that I am doing my best to solve my problem; there is absolutely no reason to worry.”
When you are on a worry fast, drink copiously of the fresh waters of peace flowing from the spring of every circumstance, vitalized by your determination to be cheerful. If you have made up your mind to be cheerful, nothing can make you unhappy. If you choose not to destroy your peace of mind by worrying about unhappy circumstances, none can make you dejected. Concern yourself only with the untiring performance of right actions, and not with their results. Leave the results to God, saying, “I have done my best under the circumstances; therefore, I am happy.
Worry fasting is the negative method for overcoming worry poisoning. There is also a positive method: One infected with the germs of worry must feast frugally, but regularly, on the society of joyful minds. Every day he must associate—if only for a little while—with “joy-infected” minds. There are some people the song of whose laughter nothing can still. Seek them out, and feast with them on this most vitalizing food of joy. Steadfastly continue your laughter diet, and at the end of a month or two you will see the change—your mind will be filled with sunshine.
