Worth the Effort

I wasn't planning on posting anything today. I had another rough night last night (getting up and coughing), so today I was just going to chill and leave the laptop alone. For the past few months my little Ford Ranger has been running poorly. But this week I had the money saved up to get the old girl fixed.

Today is grocery shopping day so Lisa and I decided to give the truck a long text run. Needless to say my anxiety was sky high all morning, but the truck drove very well and we had no problems. By the time we got home I was feeling pretty good and I decided to write this down. If for nothing else but to say, it’s sad how we sometimes allow anxiety to rob us of the simplest things. 

You see, I could have remained unnerved about how the truck would run and let my mind take me to all kinds of places. But it was a leap of faith that drove me to overcome my imagined fear. For a lot of us it's the fear of the fear that takes so much from us. A therapist once told me during a full-blown panic attack, "Feel like passing out?" I replied, "Yes!" He then said, "That's okay you’re sitting down. The worst that's going to happen is you'll pass out." 

Those simple words made a big impact on my psyche. It has shown me time and time again that no matter my worst fear, what else could happen? I mean, if I felt like passing out on the road, then pull over. As an added note, of all the times I’ve thought I was going to pass out I never have knock on wood. It sounds easy to just say, “What’s the worst that’s going to happen?” But if you think about it, is your imagined fear really worth the effort?