That was the phrase that just popped up on my Instagram this morning first thing. It really got me thinking about always staying calm in the wake of adversity and being able to recognize we are all humans just having a human experience.
Yesterday I discovered a soar on the side of my breast and where did you immediately think my mind went? You got it! The C word. This especially hit close to home as a friend just passed a few days ago from her second bought of breast cancer that she discovered from a soar on her breast. When I first noticed it I said out loud, this will be fine. But we are all just humans having a human experience at any moment during our day. It is important to recognize that what we feel is connected to our past and how those feelings project into fear and anxiety and how fast it can take over our thoughts.
So what I was feeling was all related to friends and family that have experienced the C word. We at any given moment of the day are presented with choices and all play a staring role in our own lives. When we say no to fear and criticism, decision is the first step to choosing new thoughts and thus controlling them is imperative to our lives.
Do you know the absolute only thing we have control over is our thoughts? Our thoughts are like a file cabinet. Think about it, when we are presented with an experience, I had a soar on my breast, I chose to open the thought file labeled Cancer. With the file open, out pops the information (the thoughts) of experience, what happened to my friend and then the attachment of feelings come. She left behind two sons, I have two sons, how they must feel, how sad and on and on. Of course, the tears started and the show What About, staring Cancer just started playing in my head.
What about the C word, what about my two sons, what about my friend that left her two sons, what about money, what about my hair, what about my breasts. Let me tell you that show was the most popular show most of my life in my head. It was a great show, it keep me literally on the edge of my seat most of the time. What was going to happen next? How was it going to end. Will there be other participants in my show? These were all as real as I am.
Oh the anxiety and fear, not to mention the worry and drama! Then one day my sons said something like this to me……or this is what I chose to hear them say……….”Mom, why are you thinking about this? It is something you cannot change and yes it is said by think about something else that makes you happy. If you cannot change it, why think about it?” Seriously? They are the smartest and best humans I know, and I raised them! How blessed am I . So, here I am years later and hearing their voices.
I know I needed to turn off the What About show in my mind, but I was there, I was on stage watching it all unfold. I needed my friend, I called her and said I needed to leave the show, but needed guidance and strength. She gave me the words i needed to run off stage and back to my calm amazing life. I knew with all my training what I needed to do, but it is OK to just be human having a human experience and that was what I was doing.
I am fine and feel blessed. I went to urgent care right away and have a mammogram scheduled in the next couple days. It was nothing more than a skin infection, how blessed i feel. But imagine all the time I would have spent worrying and how very unnecessary that would have been. Think of all the moments we loose with worry and anxiety of the unknown. With thoughts, come chances and can ultimately bring some form of change. We all have the ability to rewrite the direction of our lives and can make choices to do so at any given moment.
The lesson in this is just breathe, recognize there is nothing that we can do to change the situation, breathe, and when the commercial for The What About show starts, turn the channel. Stay calm in every situation and pretend this is just part of the lesson plan!~Shirene