I have always been an optimistic, glass half full type of person since I was a child. The future, be it the day ahead of me, or years down the road, always held hope. I would say that's how one deals with accepting uncertainty – until fear enters the heart and mind through a difficult situation and suddenly accepting uncertainty turns into demanding certainty. Panic over not being able to control what will happen in the future cripples and you suddenly find yourself sipping from a large glass that's always half empty. Hope is now serious grasping on anything that seizes control in any form. You find yourself over thinking to find a way of out this. You find your mind over taken by the growing, choking weeds of fear. And then…the panic attacks set in. How does one find their way out of this slow growing jungle in the mind?
Consistency. Consistency is the key to overcoming fear and panic attacks. You zero in on the method of solution you're going use, then be consistent with it. Even if, after some weeks, it doesn't seem to be helping, you push on. The next important thing is to stay open to any messages your chosen solutions are offering you. Don't set up expectations – that is just reinforcing "demanding certainty". Yes, now I can say, after the fact, that is how I beat fear and found my way back to the glass half full person I used to be.
What solutions did I use? My faith and my yoga practice were the two things I did consistently, over the course of 15 months. In the beginning it would be maybe ten good minutes without fear, and weeks of bad ones battling it night and day. Through the consistency of prayer, meditation, and Bikram yoga the balance slowly shifted as the weeks, then months went by. Everyday was a learning experience both in and out of the studio. Not too long ago it was now one bad day and then six good ones. The lingering of that one bad day kept, what was now the "fear of fear", alive and lurking in the background. I was on the verge of knocking it out of the park. That's when I really felt the power of consistency.
Whatever course of solution you choose to tackle any problem, consistency is the key. Many times we get excited by a new diet or exercise program. We start a new book. We buy things for a new project. Then, after a time, we let our decided course of action lapse and we still own the problem and have not advanced ourselves too much further. In diets, exercise programs, projects and books we always get another chance to start over. In the matter of conquering fear and anxiety circumstances can take a serious toll on our health and well-being and consistency is imperative.
I look back to last spring and realize if I had given up my chosen methods to heal myself, or at the very least been hit and miss with my practice of them, I would not have found my "old self" and be free of fear and able to accept uncertainty with hope and a glass half full again, today.
And so, as another day goes by, consistency is the engineer of change and learning, and….I have written.
🙂