Amygdalia's Blog

Self-talk

I posted the other day about my excessive and obsessive worrying, and how it was preventing me from functioning fully. I know my husband is worried about me; he told me the other day.

As I write this, I’m 30,000 feet (more or less) above the midwest, heading to Philadelphia. By myself. The days leading up to the trip were tough for me, as I attempted to prepare both myself and my family for my departure. Will the kids make it to school and back? Will they remember their lunches? Will they remember where they’re supposed to go and when? Will they WAKE UP for school on Friday morning? All things entirely outside of my control. Then there was my worry about the trip. Will I leave early enough for the airport? Will there be traffic? Will I get in an accident? Will I find a parking spot? Will I get through security in time?

Well . . . I made it. Zipped to the airport in a little over an hour, found a parking spot on the top level of the parking garage, made it in and through security, got myself some breakfast . . . and still had an hour and a half to wait! *whew*

I dealt with the obsessive worry as I was driving with a whole lot of self-talk. “You’re doing great! Look how far you’ve come and it’s only 7:15. Even when you hit the inevitable traffic, you have plenty of a time cushion. You’re doing a great job keeping yourself calm. See? You can do this! You can do this anytime.” And on and on . . . that’s not to say that there wasn’t some anxiety. I could tell because I had a song lyric running obsessively through my brain. But I dealt with it, I was successful, I made my flight, and all is well.

Now to remember the self-talk the next time I get anxious.