I thought you might find this interesting. A student in my class turned to me and asked, "How do you do it in this class?" I asked, "Do what?" She responded with, "You look like you're always in control, and relaxed. None of this material freaks you out, whereas I'm always on edge". I had to laugh inside b/c I was actually a bit stressed. I just said, "Oh...I don't know...I just get through it". LOL!

Excellent!

The same type of thing happened to me about a month ago when I was having a horrible week - anxious all day, not sleeping at night, obssessing like crazy, and just generally driving myself nuts - you know the drill.

I had taken a day off at work and when I came in the next day, one of my coworkers asked me if I had a nice day off. I said I did and I asked him how things were in the office. He told me he was really glad I was back because I have such a calming effect on things!!

That wonderful facade so many of us were able to pull off for so long, or still do. Ouch.
One of my coworkers actually admitted to me one day (years before the program for me)that I intimidated her because of my confidence and "expertise with ease". Wow, had her fooled!

Growing up, we were always told that our personal lives should never enter the doors of our professional lives and that stuck with me.
I still agree with this to a certain degree, but not to the point that we have to seem in perfect control all the time.
It actually feels good and uplifting to finally not have to be that self imposed "perfect professional" or "perfect mom" or "perfect homemaker" or "perfect hostess" or "perfectly in control" persona anymore.
What a relief!
I'm not perfect, not even close and I love myself anyway.
Cool.
I am talented, capable, intelligent, loving and compassionate- and proud of it, finally.
I make mistakes, try not to, but do.

Many of us would be very surprised how a bit of disclosure is such an enormous blessing to others. Who the heck wants to feel so out of control because they seem to think everyone else is so IN control? Been there? I have.

Try it sometime. Maybe not the whole story, just a sentence or two. "Well, actually I've been a bit stressed, just didn't discuss it" "Thanks for the compliment though"
What a relief, she gets stressed out too, huh.

Huge hugs to all!

Hi there fellow student,
I have returned to school. So far college has been an amazing learning time. Nothing like highschool.

I am in the last week of my job (through employment termination) which has triggered a lot of anxiety and one of the secretaries said to me the other day:

"You look way too happy this week."

I didn't bother to comment back, I just laughed. Such good actors and actresses, aren't we?

ha, funny yesterday in my aerobics class my instructor (who never remembers my name) asked again to me, "it's Dawn, right?" and i said no it's (what my name is) and she said, you always look so sunshiney and cheery in here. you just like look like a dawn. i thought, MAN! i'm always in there at the end of my day when i'm the most tired and crabby! if they only knew i was freaking most of the time! but yes, we are good actresses.