A tip to comfort you

Fear and anxiety can sometimes take over our lives—threatening to derail us from moving ahead. We've talked before in these blogs about looking fear directly in its eye rather than acting as though it's not there. Face it head-on. Generally, when you do that and really examine fear, it goes from gorilla-size down to kitty-size. It's much more manageable.

Examining it means asking questions such as "What specifically am I afraid will happen?" and "If that does happen, what might that mean for me?" "What will I do if that does happen?" "Can I handle it? Can I get help to handle it?" Take it apart piece by piece, and often you'll find that you really do feel more confident about facing whatever it is. And you'll see that some of the fear and anxiety is totally irrational.

However, sometimes we just need to comfort ourselves so we can regain the energy to deal with the situation. Recently, I learned a method of doing that. Sit comfortably in a chair with your feet on the floor and hands in your lap. Hold the thumb of your left hand with your right hand, surrounding it completely, and do deep breathing for several minutes. Our thumbs are our "comfort digit" since that's the finger little ones typically suck on when they want to comfort themselves. Concentrate on your breath and just comfort that thumb. This can have a calming effect for you—and you'll be ready to face whatever lies ahead.