The Sky is Falling

 Do you remember the story of Chicken Little?

He was always expecting danger. He believed the sky was falling.

I can relate to that story.

When you grow up with a sensitive nervous system, it doesn’t take much to frighten a little girl. She learns to watch for danger before she learns to trust that everything will be okay.

I see that pattern in myself.

I can swing from being naive to imagining frightening scenarios.

It is exhausting to live between those two extremes.

I have learned that my mind isn’t trying to make my life difficult. It is trying to protect me the only way it knows how.

As a child, expecting danger made sense.

It was my way of surviving.

But what protected me then doesn’t always serve me now.

I have to become mindful before believing every fearful thought that enters my mind. I have to pause long enough to ask myself, Is this happening right now, or is this an old alarm being sounded again?

Even then, I still make mistakes.

Sometimes I believe the fear.

Sometimes I let my imagination convince me that the sky is falling.

Instead of criticizing myself for it, I am learning to respond with compassion.

Of course my nervous system reacts this way.

It was trained to.

But it can also be retrained.

One gentle choice at a time.

One mindful pause at a time.

One reminder at a time that the frightened little girl who expected danger every day is now being cared for by the woman who knows that not every falling acorn means the sky is coming down.