Have you ever seen a movie where, when someone goes into a dangerous situation they are assigned a panic word in case they get into a life threatening situation where they are given a code word so that they can be pulled back from that into safety?
So, let’s think about it for a bit…just as an example, for the year 2025 let’s assign ourselves the panic word “hamburger”. Assign your spouse or good friend so that every time in the new year that you feel in a panic or find yourself hyper-ventilating from something that’s putting you in danger you can alert that person with the word “hamburger”. When you say that word your assigned person must meet you at your favorite burger joint for lunch and to console you for whatever reason you have put out the alert for. You will feel so much better when you have calmed down with the burger and friendship that the panic will subside. Problem solved.
Wait! What are the repercussions of this proposal? I have been working retail this Christmas season since a little before Thanksgiving. How would this affect someone working retail? I can tell you that, according to whatever problems you are having would be nothing compared to the gastro-intestinal problems that would occur after having yelled “hamburger” ten times a day to your assigned panic person, both you and your rep would either be bloated out the wazoo or would have gained twenty pounds by the end of the holiday season. If your spouse is one that gains weight easily and you have gastro-intestinal problems – you will now be at odds with one another because you have lost ten pounds and the partner would have gained twenty! This would, in turn, cause you to have to yell “hamburger” again.
Everyone has panic situations daily, and if this would continue, the only people that would be happy would be the people that run the burger joints. Remember, one of you now has gained twenty pounds and the other is well, the other is someone you do not want to be in the same room with now. It might be flammable.
We are human, we panic. Take a moment to breathe before hitting that panic word. Do not alert that panic person unless it is absolutely necessary. Remember, one of you could be twenty pounds heavier and one of you would now be dangerous to strike a match around.
At the very least, changed that panic word to “antacid”! (and laugh once in a while).
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
~AE
Voice of the Introverts 