Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that anxiety producing events can sometimes be
Speaker 1: kept in context by reminding yourself that they will eventually
Speaker 1: be over. It won't be long before you will be
Speaker 1: viewing the event in the rear view mirror, so best
Speaker 1: to enjoy what you can of it while remembering how
Speaker 1: small it is in the grand scheme of things. A
Speaker 1: few weeks before I recorded this episode, my family traveled
Speaker 1: on vacation together. Right before we had a series of
Speaker 1: other events that required a lot of coordination. Transporting many
Speaker 1: people in their stuff anywhere can be challenging, and our
Speaker 1: home bound trip from vacation involved making a ferry, navigating
Speaker 1: customs at an airport, entertaining a toddler on a plane
Speaker 1: for more than four hours, and then driving ninety minutes
Speaker 1: to get home at midnight. The next morning, which was
Speaker 1: a Sunday, my oldest son and my husband needed to
Speaker 1: get back on a plane to get him to camp
Speaker 1: for four weeks, and I needed to turn myself around
Speaker 1: to get on a cross country flight that evening to
Speaker 1: give a speech Monday morning. I figured out the obvious parts,
Speaker 1: like getting child care for that Sunday. To cover the
Speaker 1: time between when I left for the airport and when
Speaker 1: my husband got home. We packed my son's camp bag
Speaker 1: before we left on vacation and did his laundry while
Speaker 1: on vacation, so he was ready to go. When you
Speaker 1: get home at twelve ten am and leave again at
Speaker 1: nine am. This is key. In any case, none of
Speaker 1: this felt like it was going to be particularly easy
Speaker 1: or pleasant to get through, so I did spend some
Speaker 1: time worrying about how everything was going to go. But
Speaker 1: as I thought about this on the Friday before our
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday travels, I had a few thoughts. First,
Speaker 1: in seventy two hours, I would be through the roughest
Speaker 1: patch of it. Most likely we would have gotten home
Speaker 1: from vacation. Most likely my kid would be successfully delivered
Speaker 1: to camp. Most likely I would have made my cross
Speaker 1: country journey and would be ensconced in my hotel. Seventy
Speaker 1: two hours passes quite quickly. It is a limited amount
Speaker 1: of time. I might find the next seventy two hours
Speaker 1: not entirely calm or tranquil, but soon would be over.
Speaker 1: And the truth is, there were a few things to enjoy.
Speaker 1: For instance, my husband and I had dinner on the
Speaker 1: beach at a fancy restaurant our last night of vacation
Speaker 1: when we had child care for the kids. That seventy
Speaker 1: two hours was going to contain some rough patches, but
Speaker 1: I would also see the sun set over clear turquoise water.
Speaker 1: I knew I would probably mostly enjoy my second plane flight,
Speaker 1: which would be solo, much different than flying with a toddler. Indeed,
Speaker 1: the sense of contrast might make the first flight more
Speaker 1: bearable and heighten the enjoyment of the second. I would
Speaker 1: get to sleep one night in my own bed, which
Speaker 1: is my favorite place to sleep. I might even have
Speaker 1: a few moments to play the piano or sip a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee in my own kitchen in between experiencing
Speaker 1: with the St. Thomas and Newark and Philadelphia and Las
Speaker 1: Vegas airports have to offer. In any case, the time passed,
Speaker 1: and here we are. All of this is in the
Speaker 1: rear view mirror. We made the ferry. The toddler was
Speaker 1: both exuberant and ornery on the flight. But the flight
Speaker 1: is now over, as all time in the past is
Speaker 1: now over. What loomed large as future anxiety is now
Speaker 1: just memory. That is how it is with everything. I
Speaker 1: think this mindset of recognizing how short the upcoming patch
Speaker 1: of time will be can help keep it in perspective.
Speaker 1: In seventy two hours, this will be over, and then
Speaker 1: it is on to the rest of my life. So
Speaker 1: it goes with many things, as in in two hours,
Speaker 1: this tense meeting will be over one way or another.
Speaker 1: By the end of today, I will most likely have
Speaker 1: a decision, and if not today, by tomorrow. In forty
Speaker 1: eight hours, this agonizing decision will be in the past
Speaker 1: and I will be dealing with the outcome. In forty
Speaker 1: five minutes, I will have the result of this test.
Speaker 1: In a week, I will be home from this long trip.
Speaker 1: Time will keep passing. It always does, nothing can stop it,
Speaker 1: which is simultaneously terrifying and comforting. The terrifying part is
Speaker 1: a different matter, and maybe we will address that in
Speaker 1: a different episode, But for today we can focus on
Speaker 1: the comforting part. Since this time will be in the
Speaker 1: past eventually, why not see what parts can be relished.
Speaker 1: There is almost always something focusing on that. As the
Speaker 1: time keeps ticking, mix most things feel more feasible. We
Speaker 1: see happy glints on a river that soon it's just
Speaker 1: water under the bridge. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
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