Not Quite Betty Crocker

This is the year of not losing my shit.

I’m going to spend big, dream big/ plan big/ do one little thing, and travel more.  Each one is an attempt to manage personality quirks so that I don’t lose my shit so often this year. 

This quirk: I over think everything, which leads to my believing that things are scary that won’t actually hurt or kill me.  I’m not saying that emotional pain isn’t a big deal, but when I start to be afraid of feeling bad, I need to get out and do more.  It’s all about perspective.

Make sense?

Learning new physical things is scary for me.  I’m a technical learner, needing to understand the mechanics and technique intellectually so that I can tell my body what to do.  So learning a new thing is good for my brain because it makes me think really hard.

But it’s also good for my brain because sometimes you just have to stop thinking.  You have to trust in techniques that don’t feel right, trust in your body to do things without active brain intervention, trust your coaches and teachers and advice-givers.  Okay, so learning new things is also a trust exercise and I can certainly use some practice trusting.

And more than anything, doing things that might actually injure reminds me that emotional pain will not.  This is good for not losing my shit so much over emotional things.

So.  Doing real scary things.  Like riding my motorcycle more often.  And learning to snowboard.  And hiking and camping and doing a headstand in yoga.  That’s the plan.

The hilarious part is that I’m not a big risk-taker, so my version of motorcycle riding is pretty darned safe.  My goals for snowboarding are pretty darned low. (And I have written notes stashed in my jacket pocket culled from hours of watching instructional videos in preparation for the real-life lesson.  Yea, I’m a nerd.)  Hiking?  Not really scary.  But it’s all relative, so I’ll still get the benefits.