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Today – Epic in Every Way – Exhausted Day 2

SandersSaysToday, as good as yesterday was for our business with the meetings I set up with clients whom I’d never met in person, was the best day as far as epiphanies and life-changing information and personal development I’ve ever had.

It was one great speaker after another, but two very much made me think about who I am, what I do, and why I think about why I am feeling the way I do. You know me by now: you’re going to get the real deal here, so I hope this has as much meaning to you as it does me.

Find a happy place

The first speaker, Cathy Brooks, had us first close our laptops, close our eyes, breathe (deeply – hah!), and take ourselves to the place where we are most happy (preferably not in front of your computer).

I was lost. I was floating around from memory to memory, place to place trying to find where I am most happy. The beach in the shade in our lawn chairs? Our vacation in Tennessee? The floor watching TV with Beautiful? Our patio when we’re sitting in the sun reading and talking about stuff?

I was crushed! Am I happy? If I’m not, what is the cause? It was the next speaker who may have uncovered why I was questioning my happiness.

Today We Are Rich

That is the title of the latest book by Tim Sanders (@SandersSays). I put it on my nightstand in the hotel to read tonight to see how far I get before I sleep. I want to be quite clear about this next statement, as it holds no exaggeration. Apart from a speaker at church camp in Jr. High who cut me to the core with a talk and changed my life for an eternity, this was the single best talk I’ve ever heard in all of my years of sermons, going to motivational business meetings, watching videos, and fantastic conferences of the past. I’m even going to investigate a psychological diagnosis that makes sense for how I feel.

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Living With or Avoiding Anxiety

Nail-biterAnxiety is a common symptom of CF. There is anxiety from finances, whether or not something is going to make you sick, if you can get the meds you need in time and under budget, or if you can make it out of clinic without IVs or in the hospital.

I think there is a line chart that depicts anxiety in the life of a CFer. It starts low as a child in a healthy home environment, so long as their parents don’t pass on the anxiety they had when they found out. However, it’s high if you’re diagnosed later in life, but then diminishes once you realize it’s not the end of the world. Anxiety enters when trouble does. Sickness. Resistance to meds. Hearing the “T” word for the first time: transplant.

I’ll stop here for a second to pause and either remind or inform everyone that anxiety doesn’t do anyone any good. You can’t control the number of hairs on your head, your height, or the days of your life. There are some things that are always going to be out of your control, while others are under your influence by how you live and think. One thing is certain about all of these things: anxiety never changes the outcome. Since it has no positive bearing on things, we are advised “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Phil 4:6. It is okay to be concerned about things that press on you, but do not dwell on them and allow them to get a hold on your psyche.

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