Purple Haze
The worry diet
By Lauren Bagian

Nov. 12, 2009

The marching band season was drawing to a close. I had been doing this for 4 years, it was very cold and I was tired. My arms ached from holding up the 12-pound weight of my baritone horn, which I affectionately described as a trumpet on steroids. Long story short, I didn’t want to be there, especially in the basics block, an exercise the band uses to practice marching style and technique. While the exercise is incredibly helpful for all participants, for a seasoned veteran like myself, I was simply bored. The rest of the band seemed to agree with me because to make it a bit interesting during the hour of basics block practice many band members switched instruments. Saxophone players held flutes, clarinets grabbed mellophones and, since my shoulders were in need of a break, I switched instruments with my friend, a trumpet player.

From the first moment I snapped the barely 3-pound horn up into the attention position, my shoulders sighed in relief. The break I received by holding that trumpet actually made the tedious exercises in the basics block enjoyable. Laughing, I looked at my friend and said, “Wow, now I know why the trumpets are so relaxed all the time.”

The extra weight that I wasn’t carrying in the basics block parallels how worries weigh many of us down throughout everything we do. We all need to go on worry diets or else we will be too heavy to enjoy our everyday activities that we wouldn’t normally think of enjoying. For example, the idea of going to the grocery store seems like one of the worst things for busy people. It takes up valuable time in the middle of the day and it’s simply a get-in-get-out task. However, if we can expel those worries about wasted time from our minds, we can enjoy finding new meal ideas and the fresh smells of the produce section.

Finding enjoyment in everyday tasks helps stress melt away and elevates our moods. Besides, worrying about everything doesn’t do anyone any good, so why worry? Getting those worries out of our minds also makes us all more productive and focused. Let’s all make our New Year’s Resolutions early and lose some of that excess weight.