I have written a fair few posts about sharks these past couple of months; that has been quite deliberate and part of my ongoing therapy in managing my anxieties where sharks and my family are concerned. I feel like I am actually getting a grip on this. The boys and my hubby have come to two sessions with me, so they have an idea about what I am doing. Working with my therapies we identified my fears in a progression chart, least to worst and we have been working threw them. My therapist has been using a guided imagery in our therapy sessions. This she told me was part of her training in Gestalt therapy – I had to look it up!! At first I found it a bit embarrassing really but after a couple of times I began to experience it differently. Maybe as I grew to trust wheat she was saying, I was more willing to participate in the imagery. While still using this method where I learn to control the anxieties I feel with breathing techniques and relaxation methods I am now preparing to face some of my concerns in real time. In the next few weeks I am going to visit an aquarium that has sharks. I will tell you all about it in my next post.
One of my boys came home last week, full of himself, he had got a recording of the Discovery Channel shark week. Turns out one of his friends dads was into sharks (shudder) and had recorded it and the recording was now in my home waiting for me to watch it. Daft I know but I spent half an hour working up my courage to play the first episode, cannot say I watched it all. Thank goodness for fast forward but I think I made a good attempt and I am going to watch the second one tomorrow – with my friend! I am so pleased the boys are behind me on this. I know it would be so easy for them to ridicule my fear or make fun of me and while I get a bit of that, more off their dad than them, 99% of the time they are so supportive. Not sure they read this blog but if you do Thanks boys.