Worrying Less, Doing More

Matthew 6 and Yoga Sutra 1:33

what’s the difference between worrying and problem solving?

Thanks to some traditional Biblical interpretations of Matthew 6:25-34, I learned early on to feel conflicted about worrying and problem solving. Why? Because worrying and problem solving were conflated as the same thing. I learned something like: we need not worry about our survival or whether we will have enough to eat or drink, and this is what is meant by living faithfully. All of this is fine and dandy if (1) you in fact live in a world where basic needs are met or (2) you expect the end times to arrive any moment so if your needs are not currently met, it is a matter of temporary suffering and in both cases (3) you have no responsibility to help create a world where all beings can thrive. The only way to get to this interpretation, by the way, is if I and everyone interpreting around me completely ignores the context of Jesus’ larger teachings on the matter. (Skip to the end of this piece if you want to read how I address that.) If, on the other hand, we bear responsibility to solve problems related to thriving, then, yes, we need to differentiate between worrying and problem solving. Surrounded by people who were social activists, it was a weird teaching to make sense of unless I could separate worrying and problem solving.

The difference between worrying and problem solving is that we can easily become stuck in fussing mode, and even feel virtuous about how much we are worrying, rather than choosing our agency, sorting through options, and trying something to solve the problem. Sometimes I have found myself worrying, held back by wanting a “perfect” solution, which usually, for me, means a low-risk one guaranteed — who can guarantee a risk? — to work. But with complex problems, there is rarely for me going to be either a low-risk answer or one I know will work in advance because it would not be a problem if I already knew what to do and had the skills to do it. For example, I turned to physical conditioning coaches when I had done all the things I knew how to do to rehabilitate from my last two rounds of acute, severe illness. They helped me figure out what to try. Not everything we tried seemed effective. Some things were counter-productive. Others involved new skills and knowledge that have been tremendously helpful. We do this all the time to solve problems related to skills and knowledge. If I don’t know how to lay tile, I can take a class. If I have symptoms of a respiratory infection, but am not sure what kind, I consult a doctor or nurse practitioner to help me sort out the best response. Worrying about how to rehab physically, lay tile, or what do with a particular infection does not actually move me towards solving the problem. This is also true with more complex social problems, like why it seems ok in the country I live for so many people to be food insecure or for people not to have quality health care, like these basic needs for thriving are privileges and extras equivalent to taking luxury yacht vacations. There are lots of ways we can pick away at and solve both the symptoms and the causes of these two problems, but worrying about their existence does nothing to advance the work required.

That brings me to the problems I’m stuck in and worrying is the way I manage to stay stuck while feeling I am doing something about the problem, when, in fact, I am further allowing one set of interpretations about this problem to stop me from action. Worrying, in other words, allows me to feel like I am paying attention to the difficult and doing something while doing nothing to get myself into a different situation. It is precisely the situation Patanjali recommends the Brahmavihara for in the Yoga Sutras (1.33), as when we are ill and in circumstances not in our control or management or where we do not have the knowledge, skills, or capacities to address. Then attitude shifts can help us move into what we can do. I also find this useful living in a country that is, by many international measurements, quickly devolving into autocracy. The fundamental causes of why we are devolving may not be mine alone to address (although if enough us do, then we start to change the causes and, possibly, the outcomes). But to even have the energy to address what I can address, I need to make sure I am not allowing all my juice to be absorbed by what aids and abets harm in the world, which is the stuckness of helplessness. By the way, AutoCorrect hates “stuckness” and would like to substitute “stickiness” which removes the sense of helplessness entirely; I am writing this sentence to help AI learn the difference between “stickiness” when we accidentally have maple-syrup sticky fingers from picking up dirty breakfast dishes, and which we can wash off, and “stuckness,” which is when we feel like we are mired in one place and need oodles of improbable help to get out.

Yoga Sutra 1.33 suggests we take the attitudes of joy with the joyful, compassion to the suffering, friendliness to the just, equanimity towards the unjust. Most people I know do just fine with the first three attitudes, but hesitate or even balk at the last.

Why would we want to hold equanimity towards the unjust? I mean, hey, they’re doing unjust things. They might even be preying upon the goodnesses of others. Consequentialist reason: the unjust are not going to be affected by our internal disquiet, so we might as well route our energy towards what will stop their injustice. Yogic/Bhakti reason: my disquiet is stopping me from living the Yama and in this way I am allowing their injustice to rob me of my freedom to act on behalf of the ideal of freedom and thriving. Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds’ sharp little book, Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism, squarely describes cats as living from the yogic reasons, but also recognizes how many of us are consequentialists. So whether we occupy the space of freedom because, well, it’s a space and it is ours, or because it makes the people telling us not to occupy that space barking upset that their order and orders are not being followed, we’re still acting in ways that are inhabiting freedom, aren’t we? Except no, if I define my actions by what irritates the controller, I am still being defined by the controller. However, if I occupy space because I am disputing control of that space, that is different, and is essentially what the Great Salt March was about. When M.K. Gandhi and so many other Indians marched to the ocean to harvest salt, insisting on occupying the spaces and practices that allowed people to thrive and survive, it was a demonstration against taxing people for being alive and basic necessities, but also the colonial insistence that authorities somehow were good and just to deprive people of those basic necessities. The British colonial unjust attitudes and actions were exposed, but what was most threatening was when people refused to conform and abide by the unjust laws and taxes and instead lived as free people who ought to have access to the basics required to live and so went about solving their problems rather than staying home worrying about how to survive. If we are motivated by anger or disquiet towards the unjust, then the moment we are exhausted, or a few of us or our leaders are no longer angry, or if we move to worrying, then we will not retain motivation to keep working on solving the basic problem of how free people can access the basics we need to live. When we are problem solving, we are trying to find our way between the ought and the is. When we worry, we’re spinning our wheels and not taking care of the actual business.

The Jesus of the community of Matthew 6:25-34 is inviting people not to worry, because worrying is acting like we are virtuous without actually doing anything. In the larger context of teaching, what he seems most concerned with is people engaging in what we might call performative virtues and self-indulgent seeking. So a few verses earlier, Jesus is warning people against practicing righteousness in front of others (6:1) so that they are publicly acclaimed as virtuous (6:3). Jesus covers the difference between real generosity and performative generosity, real sacrifice and performance, and how these performances are often by people who really treasure money and social acclaim. Then 6:25 “therefore, do not worry…” is a verse that requires this larger context. Don’t be like the colonial authorities or the people who are focused on social acclaim and popularity. When Jesus says, in 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own,” we are told life has real problems. Let’s not make up fake problems, like whether there is enough gold leaf in the White House, and fuss over real problems, doing nothing real about them. Instead, we can use our energy to act in ways that stop harm, that make sure people who hunger have food, that the causes and symptoms of poverty are ended, and that folks seeking to live peaceful, free lives have the conditions for that thriving and the welcome to be part of making that kind of society and world.