Dear Aislynn:

Indeed you are a very detailed, thorough observer and analyzer. Again, I am impressed. From last backward: your dog picked up on your anxiousness… it only makes sense then that children, at any age, pick up on the anxiety and tension of their parents, doesn’t it? Parents don’t realize how important it is for them to be calm … for the well being of their children. Unlike a child, though, your dog will not have to grow up, get a job, maybe start a family and all that, and he doesn’t have that great of a memory, I think, and … lucky him, he is not going to fret about it all.

You wrote that you worry that you are dependent on planning and that it is a burden. Well, for as long as you need to plan in such detail so to decrease your anxiety, do it. It is effective. In the future, when you are calmer, then you will not need to do so much planning. Some, not as much.

You do observe and analyze- as I wrote before, you do have what it takes.

Wanting to run, that is the rushing. This is why slow yoga stretching is helpful. So is the practice of Tai Chi which is as I see it, slow, very, very slow movements, like in slow motion, that slows down that rushing that is a feature of anxiety.

I think we are approaching the third page here, or maybe already and I am glad you are persisting in it. Let’s keep going (and resting), oh, and talk to your dog, tell him calming things: this way he hears your calming tone and you get to hear it too!

anita