Why is preparedness such a difficult feeling to ascertain? I've read that over the course of evolutionary history the ability of the human mind to imagine feasible situations that could be disastrous has been a successful strategy for self preservation. For example a person worrying that he/she might get bitten by a snake would most likely avoid snakes prolonging his/her life. This means that many of us are here because our ancestors were excellent worriers, no not warriors, worriers. This must certainly be true of my predecessors since I tend to over estimate the difficulty of oncoming challenges and underestimate my ability to overcome, so I worry.
Needless to say I have been wrestling with this problem ever since the orientation in June where we were made aware of the virtual impossibility of what we were about to attempt. Hours spent concerned with scheduling, materials, vaccination papers, money, etcetera still did not bring me any peace. It was as if my subconscious was stuck in a loop of the first-day-of-school-no-clothes-on dream. What was this impending doom causing me so much anxiety?
Finally an epiphany.
"It's your survival response silly!", I thought to myself with some relief, "you don't know what's coming so your ancestors are predicting worst case scenarios to avoid surprise." Phew.
The first couple of days of school have been really fun. Mrs. Dameilo makes positivity seem effortless, I have great friends around and the schedule is very workable. None of the worst cases, in fact...all of the best possibilities I could have wanted. Many humble thanks to the universe for all of the grace.
Now that the challenge has begun I no longer need the predictions of my minds ancestral 'worriers' to protect me from the unknown. In times of action I find it important to rely on the ancestral 'warriors' who's cunning and fortitude served equitably in any prior success that I can claim and the future success that I will earn.
"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire."
- Aristotle
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