After the Zamboni cleared the ice, he didn’t even wait for us. My five year old, skating for the second time in his life (the first time, he was two), made a beeline for the entrance and struck out on his own. I held my breath as he nearly tripped and then, he was off. I followed at a reasonable distance, observing. He had it! Every once in a while, he’d do a little circle. I couldn’t tell if this was his coping mechanism for almost falling, or if he was trying out tricks. Having not skated for a long time myself, I wasn’t that steady on my feet and had to pay a lot of attention, because the ice was pretty crowded. After a few times around, I relaxed. He was fine. The next time I came up beside him I noticed he was saying, loudly enough for all around to hear, “I can do ANYTHING!” Then he turned another little circle. He continued to skate comfortably for the rest of the session. Yes, he fell a few times, and I fell once, too, but his attitude about the whole thing really struck me. He definitely had some fear, but he tackled it by talking himself into bravery. As we took off our skates, I mentioned that I had heard him saying that. “Oh, that was Super Skater!” he smiled and asked if we could go skating the next day, too. So, not only had he made up his own affirmative mantra… he actually adopted a superhero alter-ego that was obviously great at skating. These little folks have so much to teach us!
As we head into this new year, I have decided to try my son’s tactic for handling situations where my fear starts to get the better of me. Some days, just knowing that there’s going to be a ‘new little person’, as he calls his new sibling, arriving on the scene in June is enough to make me want to curl up in a ball of tears. Well, I’ve done it 4 times before, and, I can do ANYTHING! As a long time believer in the power of affirmations, mantras and the law of attraction, this fits right in with my life philosophy. In times of uncertainty, however, I sometimes forget that these things work well for me. So, as we enter this new year, fresh off the first new moon of 2016, I challenge those reading this to look at where in your life you are skating tentatively, where the fear is lurking and to make your own fear busting mantra, or even super hero persona that can laugh and shout, “I can do ANYTHING!”