March 28, 2024                                             S P E C I A L     M E S S A G E:

Dear Reader/ Participant:

I was thinking on my walk today (no coyotes, no bears, no mountain lions today) about improving this thread. When I chose the title of this thread, I was hoping that people typing “anxiety”, or “healing from anxiety”, etc., into their search engines, may come across this thread, and participate in it. But that didn’t happen since I started this thread on March 2, 26 days ago.

And so, I was thinking why that may be. One reason I figured, is that people may be afraid of other people leaving judgmental comments about very personal stories shared. I myself feared that. For example, if I received a comment saying that I am a bad daughter for complaining about my mother, I’d be upset.

I remember when I used to attend support groups like codependent anonymous, the rule was that each participant would share using “I, Me, and My statements“, that is, share about one own’s experience and not comment on others’ shares (not using you, and your statements). The goal was to prevent cross talk, judgments, misunderstandings and conflict, in other words: to create a safe space for people to share their personal, often painful stories.

So, I decided today to adopt the I, Me and My Statements here, in this thread.

Dear Participant (if there are to be any):

Please use this thread to share about your personal experience with Fear, Anxiety and Healing, and please do not comment on other members’ shares, so that this thread is a safe space for you and for other members.

If you submit a post in this thread, I will read it attentively, and it is likely to help me in my healing process,  but I will not comment at all about what you share. I hope that reading my posts/ other members’ posts, will help you in your healing process, while you too do not comment on my, or other members’ posts

To members who will  post later in this thread commenting on other members’ posts (not being aware of this message),  I will submit these words: “Please see March 28, 2024  Special Message on page 2. Thank you“.

anita