What are you afraid of?!? What makes you feel uncomfortable, panicky, anxious?!? What makes you turn inward, retreat, shut down?!?

Maybe it’s heights, closed spaces, open spaces, rush hour traffic, death, being sick, traveling to unfamiliar places, being late for an appointment, getting lost, spiders, snakes, being judged, being humiliated, angry people, disappointing someone(s), watching our country change, sharing your true feelings, sharing your true authentic self, losing control, losing hope, losing yourself.

Did you say “OMG Yes” to some of these things?!? Part of me could not imagine that you didn’t!  And I need to say that In no way do I feel this is a complete list. However, when I began to think about myself, my partner, my friends, and some of my clients… this is what I came up with. For me, it’s most certainly a number of these things creating feelings of fear, anxiety, and angst!

So I want to share with you my super recent real-time experience!  As many of you know, I live in Massachusetts and I totally enjoy sports!!!  So… on Sunday, I had the amazing opportunity to take in a Patriots game! 🙂  My first cousins have season tickets and I was lucky enough to be invited to join them!  So here is the deal…after I said Yes I would love to go…my angst and anxiety began to build right away!  I was lucky enough to have just over two weeks to “enjoy” all of my thoughts and feelings before the big day, lol!  It really felt like a long time to sit with my worries… my anxiety… and my angst!!  So you might be thinking…”Mandy, what were you so worked up about?!?”  Well, I will tell you. 😉

I was feeling anxious about driving there since I had only been there maybe twice before, once with John and once by myself. I was feeling anxious about where I was going to park. I was feeling anxious about not having tickets in hand but having them on my phone instead. AND the thing that was creating the most anxiety for me…well that was thoughts of being able to “find” my car again in what I knew would be a sea of cars in a GIGANTIC lot filled with hundreds if not thousands of vehicles!!!

So you didn’t ask…but here is what I did (with a lot of John’s help) to try and help myself that day!  I opened up my google wallet about a half dozen times the day before and day of just to see that the tickets/passes were indeed there and accessible. I printed out part of the directions to get to Gillette in case somehow GPS failed me. I tied yellow/black caution tape around my car mirrors, had sparkly red things that John attached to wire that I could put in my front doors to stick up more than a foot above my car, had a small orange soccer cone that John attached to a piece of wood for the top of my car, and lastly…a magnet attached to green streamers to hang down from my trunk. AND I also took pictures along the route as I walked from my car to the stadium AND I wrote down (phone) the section and the numbers on the poles that were on each side of my car. Could I have done more??? Hmmmmm I really don’t think so lol. 😉  And I will tell you that NONE of my/our efforts were in vain!  Because ALL of them helped to bring my stress, anxiety, and angst down a LOT on the big day!!!  And in turn, I was really able to relax and have so much FUN!!! 🙂

So…if you’re brave enough and open to being a bit vulnerable with me or others (hint hint please leave a comment) I would love to know about one or more of your fears and/or anxieties!  And perhaps it’s a happy experience that you’ll be sharing as you were able to push yourself through it!  And perhaps you overcame some obstacles that you may not have dreamed you ever could!  Or, it might not be such a happy experience at all, and things might not have gone well!  And perhaps your fear/angst/anxiety caused you to retreat or shut down; and you were not able to “meet” the moment head on. THAT’S OK!!!  It’s a learning experience!!  “What did you learn?  What was your take-away?  What would you do differently this time?” Or, if it did go well…what helped you to navigate the situation?

Please, please, share…let’s celebrate ALL of who we are…positive and negative, together!!! 🙂 

Joy & Love,

Goddess Mandy 🙂 XO