As you probably already know, when I’m not busy with clients, I’m most likely to be found pottering in my garden or wandering around the garden centre.
It was on one of these cheeky little visits to the garden centre recently when I bumped into a fabulous client who I’d worked with some years ago to help her overcome travel anxiety. She very kindly bought me a cup of tea and we sat and had a lovely chat in the late afternoon sunshine about how her life has changed.
She came to see me initially with a fear of heights which stopped her being able to travel over bridges, ride on chair lifts or walk near cliffs or viewing points. What bothered her most was that she felt bad that it stopped her whole family from enjoying hill walks or going on holidays where there was the slightest chance of being near mountains or bridges.
She told me that since we worked together she’s been on viewing platforms at the edge of the Grand Canyon, stood on the roof of skyscrapers at New York and Hong Kong and regularly walks over the Jubilee Bridge to and from work at London.
More importantly she described how she’s now found a sense of being more relaxed in her everyday life, being more at ease with herself even when she’s in difficult situations and how this has helped her career and relationships. She reflected that when she was fearful of travelling she hadn’t really noticed how much her fear permeated her day to day life.
As we relaxed on into the early evening sunshine and our cups of tea were replaced with glasses of wine, she reflected that although she still has moments where she feels nervous, she’s now more accepting and told me that “when you learn how to put fear into perspective, you feel back in control”.
If you’re travelling this summer I hope you have a wonderful trip x