Just Keep Your Feet Moving

Todays post is about my experience in the world of social networking. Let me digress a bit. Networking has never been my favorite thing to do. Now I love people and have no problem making friends, in fact everyone I meet I think of as a friend. But there still is that little kid in me that likes to stand in the corner and not talk to anyone when in a social setting. I have worked hard to coax that kid to come out and play with the rest of the kids. It has worked to a large extent, but sometimes that shy kid shows up when least expected.

The other day I went to a tweet up. Now this isn't a bird society meeting, its for local people on twitter to meet offline and see what we really look and sound like( yes I did fix my hair for the occasion). As I drove past the restaurant where the meeting was taking place to find a parking spot; I started to feel that little kid come out. You know, the one I said that likes to stay in the corner. I tried not to pay him any attention, but like all kids, the less attention you pay them, the more attention they demand of you.

So there I was, my car parked, and that little kid having a field day in my mind. The funny thing is that there was no feeling or stress attached to him. I knew he was there, his crazy ideas pushing to the forefront of my mind, but I was not stressed. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "you really have conquered stress Dr. Zipp". Well I might not have been stressed, but my mind was still not wanting me to go in. What to do? Well, I thought, I will do what I teach and pull one of my tools out of my bag of tricks. So I used the following and it worked, first let me tell you a story......

There is a myth that up in the mountains somewhere there was a cave called the cave of a thousand demons. Monks from all over the countryside would go there every 10 years for it was said that anyone who went in and made it out the other side would attain instant enlightenment. The downside was that if you didn't make it out, you would be trapped there for eternity. In this cave would be what you feared most in the world, but only thousands of times more extreme. So if you were afraid of spiders, you would be surrounded by thousands of them for miles and miles. If it was heights, you would have to jump over endlessly deep chasms over and over again to make it out the other side.

Before the few monks that dared enter the cave every 10 years went in, they were given two instructions. These were the keys to coming out the other side. The first one was this, "everything you see, hear and feel in there is just a projection in your mind, it isn't real." The second instruction was this, "whatever happens, keep your feet moving".

So that's what I did the other night. I got out of the car, let the boy inside my head continue to cry out for attention, and just kept my feet moving. And you know what, as I walked closer to the door of the resturant, the kid inside my head went away. It was just a projection in my mind, it wasn't real.

Til next time,

Wishing you the best,

Dr. John Zipp