Rumi isn't simply telling us to stop fretting—he's pointing to something stranger and more liberating: that our worried thoughts aren't sovereign rulers of our minds, but rather waves on an ocean we didn't create. When you catch yourself spiraling about next week's presentation, the real release comes not from positive thinking, but from recognizing that the *capacity* to think at all exists independent of your anxiety. It's like discovering the theater continues running whether or not you're gripping your armrest. This shifts worry from a personal failure into something more like weather passing through—real, but not you.