Ever wonder why your mind always goes to the worst that can happen and not the best?
Think about it.
Imagine how different you would feel every day if your thoughts were running away with all the ways things could turn out amazing instead of catastrophic.
I used to think I had a right to those worrisome fearful thoughts.
After all, my daughter was abusing substances and God only knows what is going to happen next.
The thing was, all my worrying and trying to predict the future never stopped anything bad from happening or helped me hurt less when it did happen.
The only thing it got me was exhausted, overwhelmed, and barely functional.
The other day the weather forecasted long running destructive tornadoes and baseball size hail.
It was the day of the 6th anniversary of the last very destructive in Moore, OK.
I could feel the fear and tension in the air.
Many businesses shut down and hardly any cars were on the street. Many people were home watching the news. Myself included.
I did not accomplish much that day other than planning around the tornado and watching the news.
I felt powerless to stop watching.
The next day when the threat had passed, I thought about how that used to be my life every single day.
I was always on tornado watch wondering what would happen with my daughter next until I learned to change my focus.
I learned I don’t have to be fearless to take action.
When I felt fearful, I would ask myself What would I be doing right now if I wasn’t in the fear of the unknown about my daughter?
Then I did whatever came to mind.
When I was done with that, I asked myself the same question and did the next thing that came to my mind.
Some days it only took a few times of that to get in the flow of the day.
Other days I might have to ask myself over and over throughout the whole day.
Then there are the days I still spend on tornado watch.
They are much fewer and farther between, but they still happen.
The key is knowing they will happen and giving myself some grace those days.
I’m only human after all.