Hiya friend. It’s taken me a minute to write this newsletter. My mind has been a flurry of anxiety and stress, channeling my ideas around fear. Whenever I sit down to think of how fear and pressure of the unknown affect me and how I overcome it, I become paralyzed. My mind stops and works for me to focus on everything else. Anything that takes me away from facing what I’m afraid of. In that act alone, I had my answer. My mind hits a wall and doesn’t allow me to sit there and process what I fear and how I can overcome it. So I look for the easiest escape.

As I was mulling over this topic, Ian and I were staying in Joshua Tree, CA, in Southern California. SoCal is known for beautiful sunshine-filled days and endless summer weather. So it was quite a surprise when we found ourselves in the middle of a winter storm with dangerously high winds while living in a home on wheels with no real stability. As we sat there cuddled on the floor with our dogs and 75mph winds swirling outside, our travel trailer rocking like a baby’s cradle, we were faced with the fear of uncertainty; how would we make it through the night? Would we blow over in the middle of the night? Would parts of our home rip off from the wind? Was it safe to drive to a new destination? What was going to happen to us?

It was as if the chaos of my mind had exploded into the physical world and was trying to rattle me into consciousness.

It’s an innate human condition to fear the unknown. We all have dreams that live on the other side of fear. So, why can reaching for those desires in life be so paralyzing? As they say, with great risk comes great reward. I feel I am searching for a way to get my mind away from the fear of uncertainty and embrace the excitement of possibility. But what if these two ideas live on the same side of the coin? To capture the excitement of what is possible, you must learn to live with the fear of uncertainty. 

As I sat in the baby’s cradle that was my home, I found myself working to welcome the fear of uncertainty as a friend rather than a foe. What can I do to change these feelings? What will help me make it through the night?

1. Become informed.
   Luckily, despite the terrible storm rising outside, we still had service on our phones. I researched the impact of storms on travel trailers and what we can expect in these situations. We learned how we could help our chances of saving our home and the changes that were needed to change our circumstances. Knowing that there was a solution we could implement to our situation calmed the chaos in my head. It gave me a sense of direction and the opportunity to put one foot in front of the other. When facing the fear of the unknown, what usually can block us is not seeing the end of the journey and needing to know the outcome. But you can see the first step in front of you. I’m learning that’s all you need to get started; look to what you can do next and take that next step.  
2. Do Something. 
   Taking what we learned from our research, we made minor changes to our home that immediately reduced the constant shaking and made our home and my mind feel more secure. The slightest change can make a big difference in the long run.
3. Keep your eye on the prize and reframe your circumstances.
   Despite securing our home, the fear of the night ahead still lingered. Instead of focusing on the possible adverse outcomes of the storm outside, we reframed our situation to think of what tomorrow could look like. We are uniquely positioned to see one of the most beautiful places on earth in a different environment. This isn’t what we expected our experience in Joshua Tree would be like, but we will be one of the few to see it with snow and ice. How cool is that? Remember where you would like to go, but learn to embrace each step. The end destination may look slightly different than expected, but it doesn’t mean it will be any less beautiful. 

With these small changes to my thought process, I slowly overcame my fear of the unknown for that night. Do I still struggle with the anxiety of uncertainty? Absolutely. But, with this experience, I’ve learned that we as humans are resilient and can learn to adjust to any situation. Nothing is as bad as it seems in your head. Take a deep breath. Everything will be ok.