I heard an expression the other day that I’ve not heard in a long time.
“I’ve got butterflies”.
You know – feeling nervous about something.
I’ve genuinely not heard that in years.
Nowadays, we’d normally say “anxious”.
Maybe “nervous”.
But definitely “anxious” more often.
“Butterflies” frames that feeling a little differently doesn’t it?
Makes us look at in a different way.
I’ve mentioned before that I think anxiety sometimes gets a bad name.
I completely understand that some people feel that emotion more frequently and to greater depths than others (I have helped people with that for two decades).
And I get that it’s an emotion we might want to feel less of.
But I maintain it’s not automatically a bad thing.
It can show we just care about how something goes.
That we’re pushing ourselves and doing things outside our comfort zone.
That it can be seen as the “emotion of growth”.
Labelling it as “anxiety” can make it seem worse than it is.
It makes us feel it is a “bad emotion” that we “don’t want to be feeling”.
But think of a time you had ‘butterflies’.
Probably before some of the best things that ever happened to you.
Asking someone out, first date, job applications, interviews, having kids, making some big life choices, trying something new, an adventure and so on.
So, next time you feel that you’re feeling ‘anxious’………..
Ask yourself if it could be seen as ‘butterflies’.
Much love,
Jon ‘Chaos effect’ Hall
P.S. Helping people deal with the challenges that life throws at them, rather than just giving them a ‘list of things to do’ is what we’re all about. Apply for our famous ‘Great in 8’ eight week programme, at just over £3 a day, at www.myrise.co.uk/apply to find out more about that!
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
