Fear Can not Exist in the Present Moment!

FROM BECKY: Hello beautiful people! I want to share with you an experience I had during the holidays where I was once again able to use one of the Son-Rise Program strategies in a challenging situation.

I was driving towards Boston, MA on the I90 with my best friend for a short get away, when a blizzard hit. The traffic started to grind to a halt and as night fell, the snow was coming down so hard and blowing all over the place, the visibility got poorer, and to add to things, my windshield washer squirter stopped working and the ice build up on my wipers was making it harder and harder to see by the second.

We had still 15 miles to go until our exit and by now it was pitch black and the snow was settling so thickly that I could no longer see if I was even driving in a lane or not. After pulling on to the hard shoulder three times to clean the ice of the wipers. I had an unsettling feeling in my stomach and my best friend began to panic. There was a point where the traffic was so constant as we sat on the shoulder that to even pull back onto the interstate could have caused other drivers to swerve of crash. We took some deep breaths together and talked about the situation.

We realized that we were both fearful, and all the fears were based in the future. What if we have to spend the night here? what if we get stranded and my cellphone goes dead? What if someone crashes into us and we suffer? What if we die?.........

I decided that if I just stayed in the present moment, then nothing could harm me, and as I finally found a break in the traffic and pulled off on my way again, that's excaly what I did, nothing else mattered but the tire tracks in front of me, nothing else mattered but the next foot I travelled, my calm slow breaths and my mind not looking back nor forward, in the very here and now as each second ticked by.

What happened? I became calmer, I felt the fear seeping out of my body and I actually started to enjoy the experience, It felt soothing and calming, even euphoric and metitative, crawling along at 20 miles an hour on a three lane interstate.

Once again, there is nothing that the past or future can give us that the present moment can't.

Next time you feel yourself starting to panic or are feeling fearful, try simply focusing on the present moment and reap the benefits.