Excited….or Terrified??

Hi everyone,

My presentations start at Heswall Hall next week so I’m asking myself if I’m excited or terrified. The answer is….impatient! My greatest challenge unfortunately. I know presenting is not everyone’s cup of tea but I love it and so can’t wait to get out there. I’m nervous about how many people will turn up, hopeful that lots of people will and that they’ll like what I say but the unknown of it is driving me slightly round the twist this week! This time next week I guess I’ll know – yeeks!! ?

However many times I tell myself to ‘enjoy the journey’ there’s still a desperate part of me that wants to know it’ll be OK, which is quite normal but still frustrating day to day.  Is that about my resilience I wonder?  No, I think it’s just part of working through a period of change which has a level of the unknown about it.  I’m going to try and be mindful, focus on self care (which doesn’t always have to include marshmallows and chocolate I remind myself) and take one day at a time.  Oh, and try to stop overthinking it all, let it play out and stop thinking ‘what if…..?’.

Change is difficult, even if it’s something you want, it can still be scary.  As humans evolved, our sub conscious minds developed to alert us to perceived dangers, which thousands of years ago was about survival and fight or flight.  In the modern world that alert can be to almost anything that’s new or unknown.  Any change to a new setting, such as going away to University, changing jobs or moving to another area will put our sub conscious mind and our anxiety on high alert.  Managing that can be really difficult because until we start to feel comfortable with our new environment, nothing will magically reassure us that things are going to be OK.

In terms of making a decision to change, our sub conscious mind can feel more comfortable with an environment that we know, even if it’s a very negative one and so it can take a huge amount of energy to change our situation, even though we know it makes sense.  I have known hundreds of people over the years, in a range of workplaces, who’ve said “I hate it here”.  But because they hate it, they feel low on energy and so struggle to access the huge amount of energy it takes to facilitate a change.  Job applications alone can take a huge amount of energy these days and that’s before you get in the door for the interview.

So my recipe for working through change?  Hunker down (or maybe that should be hygge down!) and take one day at a time.  Know that it will be difficult and that your anxiety level might be all over the place.  Try to be mindful and exercise good self care.  Because what you’re doing is good; if it wasn’t you wouldn’t have made the decision to change in the first place.  But it isn’t easy and acknowledging that can help.  And on a personal note, I need to stop over thinking things and being so impatient!  Not gonna happen! ?

Take good care and have a great weekend.

Best wishes, Karen