What-if Overload

While trying what to make my first posting about, I considered many things but kept coming back to the same topic. In my first aid class we are currently going over CPR. I generally go into this topic with the knowledge that actually having to do CPR on a real person is a frightening thought for most students. Perhaps because the students are so worried about actually helping someone, they tend to ask lots of questions. Some questions are for clarification or further instruction on how to perform the skill, but others seem to be derived from the worry. Questions about situations that probably those of us who don't work in ERs will ever encounter. I try to tell my students that the what-ifs are not the focus, and if they know the basic skills they can handle almost any situation. This, however, is not the answer they're looking for and often provides little satisfaction. In these cases, I try my best to answer their questions and emphasize using good judgment and common sense.

This idea of worry about the what-ifs has me thinking about our lives in general though. How often do we worry about an event that's in the future? Or a situation that is in the past? Studies have found that what we tend to worry about things that will never happen, the what-ifs. For some of us, myself included, we have a hard time refraining from worry. One of the bad things about worry is that it is a vicious circle. If we try to eliminate worry from our lives, we worry that we aren't worried. If we focus on our worries, then we are missing out on all God has planned for our lives. I suppose there is not easy fix for worrying, but by using good judgment and following what you've been taught, you'll know what to do in those what-if situations.