Thoughts of Impending Doom

During a conversation with one of my VIPs this week, we were discussing how well her life was going and how she's making progress in various areas of her life. But she was sharing that she was antsy and couldn't put her finger on the reason why. She told me "I am waiting for something bad to happen; because something always does."

What she is feeling is not uncommon. When you start intentionally shifting your life from one of responding to situations versus reacting you feel differently. First, is that you are more calm about addressing a situation than you use to be. Secondly, is that you'll find relations with family and friends start improving because since you are calm they become calm. You'll find that as a situation arises that could cause a major uproar before; doesn't anymore.

With the old pattern of reacting; it is typical to pay a consequence of some sort … it may be someone pushes back on you with anger or it may be as simple as a mental note to yourself to do better next time. When you start changing yourself from reacting to responding you are expecting a negative consequence since that is a result of your old behavior.

When it doesn't come you have what I call free floating anxiety. You are antsy and you don't know why. You are bracing yourself for a negative consequence. You are on high alert like my client waiting for the other shoe to drop in your life because that is what use to always happen.
It usually takes someone exte
al to point out that you are changing the way you deal with your life and you are moving away from the reactionary life. Life isn't meant to be filled with thoughts of impending doom; life is meant to be lived.

Going through this transition period of reacting to responding; I work with my VIPs on learning to turn things over to the Big Guy. This is an understanding that there are situations you jump into that you have no business jumping into. As you begin to understand what this means in your life and are intentional about turning situations over; you will find your life changing with peace taking the place where negative feeling were previously.

As my VIPs work through this new way of living into their lives; everyone gets to the point of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I remind people the Big Guy doesn't have feet; he has no shoes to drop.