Scott,
All fear, anxiety, nervousness or whatever you want to call it is fear of the future, what it will bring and how you will cope with it, or even whether you will survive it. The problem is that whatever future you imagine is not real. Not only hasn't it happened but, if you look back on events in your life, they never take place in the way you had imagined or feared.
There is a reason for this. Your imagination about some terrible thing that you fear happening can never include the day to day detail that actually exists .when the thing really does happen. Here's an example. I once had a bad case of sciatica that incapacitated me for a month. I was in excruciating pain whenever I got up to move even a few feet. And yet, it wound up being one of the most enjoyable times of my life, as I was relieved of the stress of work and had the opportunity to watch great movies on TV (it was 30 days to Oscar on TCM) and read great books the rest of the time. Yet, if God had come down the week before and said "Ira, in a week you will get sciatica and be in excruciating pain for a month," I would have been horrified about the prospect.
By the way. recovering from open heart surgery, physically week as I was, was a wonderful time during which I read every book that existed, it seems. I never would have imagined that the recovery would have been so painless from a psychological perspective.
What may help you is meditation. This is nothing more than training yourself to focus on the moment, on right now, rather than on some hypothetical set of future circumstances that will end up being far more varied than you imagine. Focus on your breath, in from your nose, feeling your bely expand, and then out from your nose. Feel how the breath actually feels going into your nostrils and down into your belly and back. You will have a flow of thoughts come into your head but, when you notice that you have stopped focusing on your breath, gently redirect your attention back to your breath. Let the thoughts be like clouds passing overhead while you remain, cognizant of them, but focused on your breath.
We've all been through what you are about to go through, and you will come through to the other side, as we all have done.
Ira
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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-20-2020 07:33
From: mary hedtke
Subject: Surgery
There is a nervousness to every surgical procedure, but I started to think that the heart was the only thing between life and death and that without getting my heart fixed, I had no chance at a longer more successful life.
I practice meditation and kicking in my meditation to 110 percent really helped calm my anxiety about My OHS...
Hope this helps a bit. We do know what you are going through
M
Original Message------
Hi,
For those of you that have gone through OHS, how did you cope with the nervousness you had before going into surgery, and the feeling of just not wanting to do it?
Thanks,
Scott Woodward
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Scott Woodward
QA Assistant
Northrop Grumman
San Ramon CA
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