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I looked fear in the face and got back on the tube! | Verna Smoker

                                              Fear is nothing more then a state of mind...



                                       


I’m not getting back on the tube! It was WAY too scary ....


Going down rapids in an inner tube looked like fun and filled with adventure on a hot 95 degree day. Even though I'm not crazy about water, I decided to join in with the rest of the family and have a blast. 


All was going well Until… I went over that very last rapid! Before I knew it I was thrown off my tube and I felt myself being pulled down by the current while wildly trashing around under water like a crazy women!


My tube floated with the current and I was left to defend for myself. 


I decided right there and then… that’s it! I’m done! No more tubing for me!


In the mean time My 9 year old Grandson was dealing with his own stuff. He also got knocked off his tube and was left stranded and scared! I could see him but I was not able to help him, only reinforcing in my mind that this was it! 


We both agreed that this tubing thing was way too dangerous and we had enough. It was too scary! 


We were at a pivotal moment. We could call it quits, give into our fears and feel lousy about our day and ourselves or…. we could be brave and face our fears head on. We took one look at each other and together we made the decision to move forward, face our fears and grow from the bad experience we just had.


 


“Action Cures Fear... inaction creates terror” - Douglas Horton


Well then… if fears are nothing more then a state of mind, and if action cures fears, we simply needed to “Flip The Switch” We did that by moving our thoughts from negative to positive. 


We thought of all the fun we would miss, in fact, who wants to sit on the sidelines and watch the rest of the family have fun while we were sitting in the hot 95 degree weather?


Besides, was it really that bad getting thrown off the tube and going under water? I wasn’t t even close to drowning! So … what’s the big deal? Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be.


I helped my grandson realize that being stranded for a period of time really wasn’t that bad, in fact the life guard was soon there to rescue him and he was perfectly fine in the long run.



Studies show that humans repeated exposure to the event(s) that created the trauma can help the anxiety subside. 



Together we made a decision face our fears. Together we reached for another tube, I put on my big girl pants and together we attempted another ride down the rapids, this time with lots of laughs and giggles. 


At the end of the day, my grandson said…. This was the best day ever! At the end of the week when asked, what was your favorite thing you did on vacation? Guess what his answer was? You guessed it! With a wide smile and excitement in his voice he said, the tubes!!!


What if …. what if we had given in to our fears and created less than a desirable day? But ... because we decided to keep going, we gained not only strength, but courage, and... confidence in ourselves. 


When you let your thoughts, feelings and decisions be driven by fear, you are reduced to a slave of fear and as long as we’re reacting to fear, we can’t be reaching our fullest potential. When fear gets the best of you, use it as fuel to drive you.


What is your fear? What is paralyzing you from moving forward?

Remember, fear is all about what might happen, not what will happen. "Flip The Switch" and move your thoughts from negative to positive.

Get back on YOUR tube and make it your best day ever!

- Check out my blog on how I over came anxiety and panic attacks.

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@ vernsmoker.com

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Meet Verna Smoker

 

The moment we heard the doctor say…


“ITS A BOY”


My husband and I were over the top excited with the birth of our second child.


Those words were music to our ears, UNTIL the music was drowned out by, “Your baby boy has a birth defect, your son is born with spina bifida”. The next few days were a blur of emotions. I was scared, really scared.


I was 22 years old. We were young parents. This was not suppose to happen!


We were told that our baby would need a shunt placed in the ventricles of his brain to relieve the pressure of the spinal fluid on his brain, better known as, hydrocephalus. This was all so foreign and terrifying. Surgery after surgery became our baby’s life.


FEAR, SADNESS, ANGER, DISAPPOINTMENT, GUILT and BLAME on MYSELF became part of my world. Would our baby boy have brain damage? Would he walk? Let alone…live?

Surgeries and long hospital stays all took a toll on my emotional well being.


Instead of being raw and vulnerable with my feelings, I buried them. I was “Super Mom” (or at least that’s what I thought). I learned to wear a mask and I was good at it. I looked the part and I acted the part because I was “Super Mom”. 


However, I pushed my feelings down DEEPI pretended they were not there. This way I DID NOT NEED TO FEEL so deeply. It took awhile to notice, years to be exact, but I was slowly losing control of my emotions. My stress was going through the roof. Panic attacks and depression became real in my life.


Years passed.... 


At the age of 23, our son developed a brain infection which caused him to have colonic status seizures (you know, the kind that do not stop except through medicinal interventions). TERRIFYING to watch!

To top it all off, my husband survived a heart attack (thankfully he is doing well), my mom died of breast cancer, and a few years later my dad died of bladder cancer.


All of this added even MORE STRESS and WORRY.


By Gods grace, and because of our deep faith in HIM, we have and continue to weather the storms. 


Because of the RESEARCH I've done, today, WE DO LIFE differently. We’ve discovered ways to implement and make changes that support our IMMUNE SYSTEMS as well as our EMOTIONAL and BRAIN health. We’ve made changes in the amount of TOXINS that we surround ourselves with. We have become more aware of how “toxic exposure” has an affect on the internal structure of our brain and can trigger both short and long term effects. 


I’ve also found ways to manage my stress level. Those terrifying panic attacks no longer torment me. We have  found the tools we need to live our BEST LIFE, and for that, I am grateful. 


It's our life, and though there are parts of it that we continue to look for solutions in, we will continue to move forward. 


LIFE IS A JOURNEY, and it is BEAUTIFUL. 


If any part of my story connects with your own story I would love to chat and connect with you.



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