Not Worry, Not Indifference: Conscious Feeling in the Work

In learning how to live from the Work point of view, so that we live more consciously in life, or live in the Work in life and not just in life without anything between us and life, worrying is one of the things that show us something about ourselves if we notice it uncritically and over a long enough period.

But you must not think that the opposite of worrying is indifference. You can and should feel 'anxiety' about another person in danger—a mixture of hope and fear—but worrying is quite different, for then the imagination comes in. It becomes a habit, just as do so many other negative states, and people even imagine they are better than others by having them and feel merit in worrying.

Maurice Nicoll, “Psychological Talk" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 137)