Fear not! ... okay, fear, but do it anyways.

I've mostly been on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico since Friday night, first in the panhandle of Florida to celebrate a friend's birthday, and then along the coast to Mississippi to attend my uncle's funeral on Monday.  I'm grateful to be safely back inland, even though I already miss the shore and the company of my friends and family. 

I've missed a few days of the Everyday Happy project, since I last posted, so let me quickly recap:

Day 15 -- Watch How You Walk.

Tread, don't trudge.  How you walk around can hugely uplift your mood and having a spring in your step can really improve your frame of mind.

Good gosh, being at the beach put a natural spring in my step, so I was all over that suggestion, right up until I took a twisted fall down a set of stairs in my friend's beach house.  Here's what happens when your socked foot slips off carpeted stairs:  Your instinct screams at every muscle you didn't even know you had to save you, while you are busy making your own noise.  Make noise, is about all you have time to do, as your arms automatically try to take over where your feet left off.  After I checked to be sure I was still alive, I collected myself, shrugged it off, and tried to keep on keeping on with a spring in my step, but some of my body parts were indignate that I wasn't taking their discomfort seriously.  So, I lessened the spring and took an Advil.  I may have hobbled for the rest of the day, but I was happy to at least be hobbling, hobbling across white sands under blue skies no less.  I was back to good by the next day.

Day 16 -- Plan new projects.

I have a lingering unfinished home project, which bothers some of the people in my life more than it bothers me, so I didn't think it best to start planning a new project, lest those well meaning people start a mutiny.  (After waking up at 3:00 a.m. this morning and watching "Heavy" on A & E, I thought I should get a plan, and fast, before I find myself weighing 300 to 600 pounds.  After remembering that I am in no real or near danger of that weighty fate,  I decided to put my preemptive plan in temporary mental storage so that I could go back to sleep.) 

Day 17 -- Deal with fears logically.

Don't worry about things that probably won't ever happen to you. Pay attention to the thing you are particularly fearful of and take constructive steps to avoid any real dangers. Then concentrate on enjoying the day, confident that you'll deal capably with whatever happens, when it happens.

Although, I think weighing 600 pounds is scary beyond belief, I don't have what I think are irrational fears, and I try to face those fears which I find rational.  To be truthful, I don't relish flying or long distance driving, and I wasn't looking forward to all the driving I had to do this past weekend.  But, I refuse to be paralyzed by the very real potential dangers of flying and driving.  I'm motivated to take the risk, because I personally like a change of scenery from time to time, and recognize that even the most seemingly innocuous task such as climbing a ladder or descending a flight of stairs could make for a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."  Just ask Alexander ....

http://www.kennedy-center.org/multimedia/storytimeonline/alexander.html

Do you have any nagging fears?

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