"I Get To!"

Last summer I would go into Peet’s coffee and complain to my sweet friend Clare, and other local coffee drinker’s, about yet another sleepless night because of my son’s horrific nightly panic attacks. I would not sleep either because I had to take him to the emergency room, or talk him down from thinking he was having a heart attack. The panic attacks finally subsided after a few months, when the root of the cause was discovered.
During that nightmare of our summer, I had an epiphany that I was going to quit complaining and “tell a different story”. I will choose to focus on solution rather than the problem, and talk about how lucky I am to have the privilege to raise this young child. How lucky I was to comfort this beautiful soul, and how fortunate I was to have pediatric cardiologist’s close by to examine his heart in order to soothe my son’s mind and soul.
You see, I can often slip into the awful habit of complaining about how hard it is to be a single Mom. Or I can tell the story of how I “get” to raise my child, or how I “get” to go grocery shopping, or how I “get” to go to work.. These are privileges! I “get” to do these actions. I don’t “have” to, I “get” to. I have arms to clean, drive, hold my cell phone, type on this computer, etc...,. I have legs to walk, get around, hike, teach yoga, and what a gift that is! Sometimes when I look out my window feeling sorry for myself, I will see a person in a wheelchair roll by, or see my blind neighbor using her stick to make her way along the sidewalk. I can always choose to see the glass half empty or half full in every situation.
All I know is that when I started “telling a different story” of faith and belief, rather than fear and complaint, things shifted. The solution for my son’s panic attacks came quickly and I felt better in the process. When I actually talk about and complain about what is going wrong, I am actually feeding the beast (the problem)! I absolutely “anchor” the situation in place by rehearsing the negative drama. If I actively ignore the beast it falls away. Next, I feed the great, delicious new story of beautiful intentions, terrific outcomes, fantastic solutions, and a life beyond my wildest dreams! So, if you don’t like where you are at this moment....tell a different story!!!

“I Get To!!!”