Hey {{first_name}},
Last week I flew back from Madrid, and it nearly went terribly wrong.
Not because of the food. Not because of anything that actually happened. But because of a story my own brain very nearly convinced me was true.
I'd spent a few days out there surrounded by people who were either sick or just recovering from being sick. Now I'm pretty confident in my immune system these days, but on my last day I had two trains to catch, then hours of security, then a flight and if you've followed me for a while, you'll know that some of my worst moments with my health have happened on public transport. Trains especially.
I've done a lot of work on that. I'd say I've overcome most of it. But there's still a little voice that gets a bit louder whenever I know I've got a long journey ahead. What if I get sick? What if I need the toilet and I'm stuck in the middle of a queue with nowhere to go? What if I get so ill I miss my stop, like I did years ago, except this time I miss my flight?
I know those thoughts are coming. So I know I have to stay on top of them.
But on the morning of travel, I didn't.
I woke up feeling a bit strange, a bit off, and that was all the voice needed. "You've been around sick people all week. You've probably caught something." A few hours passed and, instead of catching those thoughts early, I let them run. I ruminated. The more I dwelled on it, the worse I actually started to feel, which only convinced me more that I was getting more ill and that the whole journey home was going to be a write-off. The thoughts got louder. I got bloated. I started to feel like I might throw up.
But that's when my training kicked in.
Instead of dwelling on things I couldn't actually be sure were true, I stopped and spoke the facts over myself.
Yes, I'd been around sick people. But my immune system is strong, and I hadn't spent much time up close to any of them, so the chance of me catching something was slim. I always feel more stressed when I travel, and that stress always makes me feel a bit worse and makes me over-analyse every tiny sensation in my body.
I'd also had a breakfast shake that morning that someone else had made for me, so there could easily have been an ingredient in there nudging my stomach.
So when I lined it all up honestly, the chance I was actually sick was small. The chance that I was stressed and reacting to an unfamiliar shake was far, far more likely. But even if that shake had contained my single worst trigger food, I knew there hadn't been enough of it to do any real damage. I was going to be fine.
So I just kept speaking those facts over myself and within an hour, I felt almost completely back to normal.
Why it worked
Here's the thing I keep coming back to. A lie believed to be true will act on your life exactly as if it were true.
My brain had grabbed one vague feeling and built an entire sick day around it. But the wild part is that the belief alone was making my body respond. The bloating, the nausea, the spiral. None of it needed me to actually be ill. It just needed me to believe I was.
If I'd carried on letting my mind tell itself lies, I know for a fact the journey home would have been awful and I'd have spent most of it feeling terrible. Instead, by the time I was actually travelling, I felt completely fine. It was genuinely one of the more relaxing journeys home I've had.
The way out wasn't positive thinking. It was honesty. The best way to stop believing a lie is to focus on the truth and be brutally honest with yourself about what that truth actually is.
This week's practical tip
Next time you feel a symptom creeping in before a big journey or event, don't argue with the feeling and don't try to think positive over it. Just lay out the facts.
What do I actually know right now? What's the most likely explanation for this feeling? What's the real evidence for the worst case? Write them down if you need to, or say them out loud.
Nine times out of ten, the honest answer is far calmer than the story your brain was about to tell. Stress, an unfamiliar meal, a bad night's sleep. These are almost always more likely than the disaster you're imagining.
This week's mindset
The symptom is rarely the real threat. The story you tell yourself about the symptom is.
A lie believed to be true will act on your life as if it were true. So when the voice gets loud, don't fight it with hope. Answer it with facts.
That's the principle I remind myself of every single time I travel, because I know that's exactly when I'm most likely to believe a lie.
See you next week.
Zak