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I am a constant user of worry beads but still I find myself being surprised by the benefits I get. I would like to share an example of this from the weekend.
I have two teenage boys and it was time they had some new clothes. They are both completely different in that one is very fashion conscious and the other, well, a bit of a slob!!! My wife and I delivered them to a local shopping centre and we started off all together. This strategy was a complete failure and we decided to split the two of them up, myself taking the fashion conscious (not that I am) and my wife taking the more difficult challenge of the “slob”. As predicted my task was very easy and within half an hour we had purchased some very expensive trainer/boots and decided on some tee shirts. We had agreed that when we were finished we would find them in a particular shop. My son decided he did not want to join his brother and returned to the car to play computer games.
I went to the shop as arranged only to not find them. I am sure you have come across this scenario many times, where the best laid plans never work. I wandered back and forward checking behind pillars etc. but to no avail. I even went to the changing rooms where I asked the young man attending them had he seen them. he confirmed that the changing rooms were empty. I have to admit to being rather annoyed as we had agreed to meet and how difficult was it to adhere to the plan.
I thought now was the time to go to “Plan B”. There were several other boys clothing stores between, the shop I was in, and the car. I systematically worked my way through each of the departments as I made my way back to the car, but no sign of them. I challenge any man not to get really annoyed at this point. It was now that I thought I would twiddle with my worry beads. I didn’t have anything to do but wait until they surfaced. I found a seat and twiddled away. By slowly moving the parts my built up frustration disappeared and I started to enjoy the sunshine. My mindset changed from frustrated and annoyed that the morning was being wasted to thinking how nice it was to take some time to relax. Before long they turned up and instead of a blazing row I was calm and we carried on with the shopping.
Those of you who don’t use worry beads may well doubt the validity of this tale but I challenge you to buy a set of worry beads and keep them in a pocket or handbag. I guarantee that if you did as I did you will be amazed. As always please share any similar tales you have had worry beads using the email address below.
Kevin
The English Worry Bead co.
kevin@englishworrybeads.uk