I opened my eyes. In the glow of the bathroom nightlight I saw my husband, crouched-over, creeping toward my side of the bed. Seeing my eyes open (he has great night vision) he stood and whispered, “did you go downstairs and turn on the radio?” It was 2 a.m. If I were more awake, I might have whispered back, “you mean, did I tiptoe by your office, slip downstairs, turn on my radio and then tiptoe back to bed?” There would have been a humorous gleam in my eyes and maybe we both would have cracked up at the absurdity of the idea.
But no, I was too groggy to work with good material. I quavered “no”, he said, “oh”, and then climbed into his side of the bed, rolled over and went to sleep. I lay awake imagining scenes from movies I wish I had never watched in which psycho killers toy with their future victims by turning on the microwave, a washing machine, the tv, a… a… a radio…in the middle of the night. My amygdala—midbrain—fired up while exhaustion s-l-o-w-e-d down access to my frontal lobes, wherein reason lies.
Thinking things through—weighing and assessing possibilities—requires some juice (energy) and is a ‘higher level’ skill. Anxiety Soothers is about strengthening our access to these skills. It is easy to get scared: we have this in common with all creatures. When we use visualizations, activities and body cues, we remove ourselves from the icky chemical cascade that occurs in the body when fear proceeds unchecked. So, with effort, I comforted myself. Eventually I remembered that the power had gone out, and sometimes the radio resets itself when that happens. The ghoul went back into its box and I lived to see another day.
But no, I was too groggy to work with good material. I quavered “no”, he said, “oh”, and then climbed into his side of the bed, rolled over and went to sleep. I lay awake imagining scenes from movies I wish I had never watched in which psycho killers toy with their future victims by turning on the microwave, a washing machine, the tv, a… a… a radio…in the middle of the night. My amygdala—midbrain—fired up while exhaustion s-l-o-w-e-d down access to my frontal lobes, wherein reason lies.
Thinking things through—weighing and assessing possibilities—requires some juice (energy) and is a ‘higher level’ skill. Anxiety Soothers is about strengthening our access to these skills. It is easy to get scared: we have this in common with all creatures. When we use visualizations, activities and body cues, we remove ourselves from the icky chemical cascade that occurs in the body when fear proceeds unchecked. So, with effort, I comforted myself. Eventually I remembered that the power had gone out, and sometimes the radio resets itself when that happens. The ghoul went back into its box and I lived to see another day.
