Because I live in snow country, winter travel can be a challenge. Recently my husband went for the last ski of the season and had to travel through a rather gnarly storm to get to the ski resort. We agreed he would call me when he got there just to let me know he had arrived safely. Its about a 90-minute drive from our house and I was busy doing other things. Suddenly I looked at the clock and realized it had been 3 hours since he left and no call. I called him – no answer – I texted = no answer and in Nano seconds I was experiencing worry, elevated heart rate and a small amount of panic. Now we are slowing down the movie to look at this more carefully. First, I was in the flow of what I was doing – so I had no worry. When I recognized what time it was, I just took action- still no worry. But then the interpreter went to work- now in reality I had two directions I could go. I could have assumed he just arrived and couldn’t wait to find the new powder- as legitimate an explanation as any other. Or I could have just waited until it was clear what had occurred and know that I would be able to deal with it, whatever it was. Or I could do what I did…stress myself out for a good while. The reason I selected door number 3 – is because of my habitual and personal thinking. My reality (though we have never had a snow problem, so it couldn’t be a memory) was due to personal thinking I have had going on. It can look like your personal thinking is actually protecting you by alerting you to the so-called problem. But in actuality it is just a bad habit and when you slow down personal thinking, you see other possibilities that bring out your innate health. Those possibilities bring a good feeling and once you are in a good feeling, you can marinate there for awhile.
As it turned out, all was well and fun was being had on the hill. All that lost energy due to thought. Oh yes and one more thing, thinking I could control life with my worry – added to the mix. More on that soon.
