Overcoming a Life Long Fear

                                                                                                             

Fear, n. desire to escape danger

I have lived my whole life afraid to go into the water, take a dip, yes, go swimming.

This fear was instilled in me at very young age.

My mother recounted the day her older brother, who was pre-teenage, drowned while swimming in the Tennessee River. She painted a very vivid picture of the river being dragged until finally the lifeless body of her precious big brother was pulled from the river.

I heard that story many, many times.  Each time I listened to it, I swore to myself that I would never let that happen to me because I was never going to go swimming.

I knew that I wasn’t going to go swimming because our mother told me as well as all of her children that we would never be allowed to go swimming.

In the 50’s and 60’s children didn’t dictate to their parents what they wanted to do. You did what you were told to do and that was that.

So, for me swimming didn’t mean hanging out with your friends, having fun at the pool on hot summer days.  It meant; get in that water and you might die. That kind of took the fun out of it for me.

Now fast forward about fifty years.....

For the past several years I have been working on improving myself so that I can live a life filled with love and gratitude. 

One of the most important things that I’ve learned is that you can’t be happy now by holding on to old beliefs from the past that don’t work for you anymore or that are just plain wrong.

You have to let go of negative beliefs that keep you from living life to the fullest. You have to be willing to make changes.  Be willing to try something new and exciting.

So this year my first change is going to be to learn how to swim.  I am very confident that I can enjoy swimming without the fear of drowning. That old fear has been tossed right into the trash can.

I took the first step by joining my community recreation center and signing up for swimming lessons.

I start March 19^th and finish April 12^th 2012.

Twice a week for 40 minutes each day I will be learning how to do something that I never thought possible.

I will be learning to swim!

My daughter is joining me on my quest to the best swimmer I can be. That will make it twice as much fun.

I will be blogging about my new adventure and logging my progress.

I am so excited,happy and grateful to be taking my first step into a whole new world!

I hope you will follow me, encourage me and share with me any positive life changing experiences you are going through or have undertaken in the past.

Until next time,

Stay positive and live in gratitude.

Love,

Pamela