So, I’m wondering how many of you can relate to this. You know when you are feeling a little anxious about something and you start to think about how a certain situation might play out? You go over and over in your head about a possible scenario and yet there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the inevitable bad thing will actually happen? Well, let me give you an example of how I allowed my silly movies in my head to get in the way…

A few months ago I had a few hours to fill in before I had to pick my daughter up from Aussie world. I was at Dicky Beach and thought I would pop into my friend’s house for a cuppa to say hi and fill in time. I thought I would be polite and send a text asking if that was okay. I sent text. No reply. Thoughts started to float around in my head:
(movie thought) ‘what if she is ignoring my message because she doesn’t want me there?’
(rational thought) ‘don’t be silly Rocky, she probably hasn’t even seen the message’
Now, just to let you in on how absurd my thoughts can be, my friend (whom I love dearly) has four children and is understandably busy and may not have access to her phone at all times throughout the day. 10 min past and then I realised I needed to go to the toilet. It was dark and I didn’t particularly want to go to public toilet on my own in the dark. So I sent another message asking if I could pop around just to use the toilet if she was busy and didn’t have time for a cuppa. No reply. Now the movies really started playing in my head:
(movie thought) ‘She must want time with her partner alone’
(rational thought) ‘don’t be silly Rocky, just go knock on the door’
(movie thought) ‘no, she hasn’t replied, there must be a reason, I dont want to make her feel uncomfortable’
I was starting to really really need the toilet by now and was just lying down in my car convincing myself that I could hold it and that I could just have a nap. My phone started to ring and it was my friend, who said that of course I could come over, she would love to see me and that I was really silly even thinking I had to ask. She called me family and I was always welcome. Well didn’t I feel like a goose. But it made me realise how much I do this. How I spend so much of my energy worrying about a situation that is completely in my head. And then I started thinking that if I did it, perhaps there were other people out there who do the same thing… my lesson that night was to follow my gut, I knew deep down my friend wouldn’t mind me popping in but it was my own insecurities getting in the way. So the lesson is to tell the insecurities to bugger off. Be up front, honest, go with my gut.