Do Something Scary!

Frequently do something that scares you but can be done safely. 

  ~ MovNat

I read this quote on Facebook this morning and was instantly flooded with images of doing things that scare me.

• When Sophia was only four weeks old we picked up and moved from Kansas to Illinois.  If leaving my family and friends wasn't enough, I also had committed to being a stay at home mom rather than an elementary school teacher and on top of that, our income decreased by a lot.  Scary!  
• When my son was five years old we listened to the school bus drive by our house without him!  We were heading down a path of not only homeschooling, but an alternative type of homeschooling known as unschooling.  We knew absolutely no other families at the time following this path.  It was both exciting and terrifying to hear the bus drive by without my son.  Almost 11 years later - this is by far one of the best choices I have ever made.
• In January I was without one of my teaching assignments which meant I was out of money we counted on.  With my mom and husband's reassurance, I took plenty of deep breaths and saw myself moving forward with other professional goals.  This has led to private tutoring with many positive people (which I needed at the time too) and a future assignment at a community college I have been trying to get into for years! 
• When I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis I chose to follow an integrative/alternative path. I searched for a naturopath and made food choices that were different than anyone I knew of at the time.  It was scary at the time because I knew I was making huge changes not only for myself, but for my family and these choices were not going to be reversible. (In my opinion once you treat yourself well with nourishing foods, good sleep, and low stress you don't want to return to what you had before.)  Eight years later, the scary choices I made for myself and my family are definitely not reversible and I am so happy for that!  I have made HUGE food choices that are so different from how we ate eight years ago and I have met the most amazing people that share my love for nutritious food.
• During a flare a few years back I was standing at the overhead projector teaching a class when I realized my knees had stiffened up to a point they wouldn't move.  I felt panic as visions of myself falling forward in front of a class of 20 some students made its way to my mind.  I took a deep breath, assigned my students to a group assignment that would take their attention away from me and then used the tables and chairs around me to scoot myself around until my knees loosened up.  Scary! 
• As my rheumatoid arthritis has improved over the last year and a half, I have tackled many things I worried may never be part of my life again - bike riding with my family, weights, long hikes, a clean house, energy for my family and myself, etc.  With each obstacle that I have challenged myself to, I have felt exhilaration knowing that I had overcome a fear and because of that, had brought myself to a greater place in life.  

What have you tried that is scary?