Solar mayhem

Wdoes that mean? This statement is, in case you hadn’t figured it out yet, about worry and the troubles which can come from it. It is one of the smallest forms of fear. Small things can often have disproportionately large shadows. Shadows are, in this statement, representative of all the scary things in our lives. But most of the actual things we fear are really small things. Small things which appear larger than they actually are, due to the size of their shadow. If we can learn to manage our worry, our fear, our trepidation, we can better face these small things and their oversized shadows.

AHAT Why is letting go of worry important?

What does worry do for you? Medically, it can lead to hypertension (high blood pressure), short fuses (making someone more prone to anger), and, in sever and ongoing cases, ulcers (stomach making so much acid, it damages itself).

And that doesn’t include the strain on relationships and the ability to work. The more you worry, the less you can do with what is left of your time. That is, your effectiveness is lessened. So not only do you lose the time spent worrying, you also lose a portion of the rest of your time. Time with family, time with friends, time at work, everything is diminished.

Worry does nothing good for you, as by definition, it is about things over which you have no control.

What will your boss say about your report? You handed it in already, nothing you can do about it now. Gave your friend a present, but will they like it? You already purchased and wrapped it. There is nothing worry can do now. Yet so many people worry. And it’s about things they cannot change. Often it’s about things which are really small things, but they have spent so much time worrying about it, they are certain it is something huge and worrisome. But still, there is nothing they can do to change it. Let go of the worry and be

with dramatic geophysical events around the world earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, massive floods around the world including in Mozambique, and unprecedented snow storms in California the Sun has come to the party in a big way. While the Sun has been stirring over the last few months, with sunspots and solar storms creating auroras and radio blackouts on Earth, the recent peculiar behaviour began on February 9.

Dramatic headlines claimed that a piece of the Sun’s northern pole had ‘broken off’ and was now swirling in a vast polar vortex.

“How could this be possible?” asked a headline in Science Times.

Images released by NASA indeed show an enormous

LONG

free.

Where can I apply this in my life?

It’s easy to worry about things, and as you have more things, you tend to worry more.

If you have a nice car, you’re worried about a scratch or other minor damage occurring. But what will happen? Will it be the end of your life? Yes, your pride and joy may not be as shiny, but so what? In time a scratch or dent will come to every car at some point in time. You are worrying about something which will happen. There is no question of it. Unless you hire a guard to stand by it and scare people away, or lock it away in a museum, it will happen. So, what good has your worrying done you?

Hopefully you can see how pointless worry is. Yes, there are things completely outside our control and even outside our influence.

And some of these things can have an impact on our lives. But what good does worrying do? Not a lot. It takes time, energy and distracts you from other important things in life. Instead, wouldn’t it be better to place your time and effort into determining what you can do to minimise the impact or damage which could occur, and then get on with your life. You’ve done what you could, so stop worrying about what you cannot do, right? Take a deep breath and let go of filament of plasma, or charged particles, blasting out from the Sun, splitting, and then circling the pole.

Nothing like this has ever been observed before.

In the days that followed, the Sun continued to produce massive X-class flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), some of which struck Earth.

On February 24, there was a chain reaction on the Sun, when sunspot AR3229 erupted, sparking a geomagnetic storm on Earth.

The eruption destabilised the sunspot, igniting another long-lasting solar flare.

Thus around February 27, Earth received a double blow, first from a solar wind stream and next from a CME.

Brilliant auroras were it.Yes, it can come back quickly, and at first your power to banish worry will be a bit small compared to the power of worry. But that’s because you have spent most of your life building the strength of your worry habit. It will take a while to wear it down, and to build the strength of letting go.

What are you presently worried about? Your popularity? Your looks? Your reputation? Are you worried about the shadow of something else small in your life?

Think for a moment about the worst likely outcome. Ten years from now, will it really make a difference? Which dent in the car was the first? Or have you sold that car already?

We all worry about something at some time. It’s natural. But don’t make the shadows any more powerful than they already are. And how powerful is a shadow?

That’s right, it’s powerless without the light or the small thing casting the shadow. And if you can face that small thing, you become the powerful one.

Don’t let worry ruin the joy in your life. Allow worry to alert you to the thought that something should be done, analyse the situation, take reasonable precautions, and get on with your life. Worry is a drain on our time, our energy, our health and even the very joy of life. Let it go. seen around the world, including the USA and New Zealand.

Geomagnetic storms are known to have effects on humans and are associated with elevated rates of heart problems, migraines and fatigue. Several studies have shown that erratic behaviour on the stock markets coincides with sunspot activity, as well as mass social upheavals, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

UV and X-ray radiation from solar flares is also very dangerous and can burn the skin.

So if you’ve been feeling a bit off the last couple of weeks, don’t worry the whole planet has been experiencing some churn.

Nearly 100 000 people in California were without

power at the time of writing. And there’s more to come – California’s icy weather, with its record two-metre snowfalls, is about to hit record warm weather from the south-east of the country, with associated tornado warnings. Seven tornadoes tore through Oklahoma last Sunday, killing one person and leaving widespread devastation.

These geomagnetic storms from the Sun, which destabilise the wind currents (known as jet streams) in the upper atmosphere, will be contributing to the mix.

In fact, that recent rogue Chinese balloon that floated over the USA seems to have been led astray by a change in the jet streams from the north pole.

There’s no doubt that the Sun’s recent activity has caught astronomers by surprise.

Nearly all the models were forecasting a weak solar maximum like the last one.

However, the current Cycle 25 has kicked in early and with a vengeance. It is expected to peak around 2025.

There’s definitely turbulent weather throughout our solar system right now, with more to come. Buckle up!