First published 7 March 2024

Are New Beginnings Scary or Exciting?

It’s that time again – the latest episode of Therapists in Conversation and this month as Spring is springing, in a slightly smaller panel than normal, we are discussing New Beginnings – just as we wrap up the 4th season of recording.

In case you don’t know about Therapists in Conversation, Leslie and I had a discussion when the world ‘ground to a halt’ around the concern of mental wellbeing at a time when it might not be so obvious how to get support if people needed it when everything is closed. 

Her idea was that we could come together as a group of different therapists to highlight what we do and how we help our clients and to hopefully also show that getting help didn’t need to be scary and we are actually a nice bunch of people and very approachable!

The original plan in the ‘beginning’ was to answer questions as they came in and see where the discussion took us.  That vision then changed, and so monthly for 4 years now, we have come together to discuss a topic – or at least start a discussion based on that topic title and then see where it takes us…

So, as we complete our 4th ‘season’ we discuss how new beginnings start when previous beginnings end.

Do tune in for some different perspectives and hopefully so golden nuggets.

And, as if we planned it, with it being World book day today – we have a number of book analogies running through the episode (this is purely coincidental as we recorded last month and the episode was released on Tuesday! Isn’t it fun how these things happen!)

When we look at beginnings and endings – we may notice fear and, or discomfort, but isn’t this just the natural way of things?

We go to sleep at the end of one day so that we can awake in a new day.

That might not on a daily basis be all that scary.  But we may have many reasons to be fearful of other new beginnings or changes in our lives.  And that is OK – in fact, it’s usually to be expected!

We can come face to face with the fear of failure, the fear of the unknown / uncertainty, the fear of change, the fear of not ‘getting it’ straight away.

Whatever the fear may be (and that was by no means an exhaustive list!) these feelings may make themselves known even if consciously, we think this is a good thing,

We have likely all heard the phrase ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ – and whilst in theory that can sound like a good plan, in practice, it is easier said than done, but, there may be something to the concept.

I would invite you to feel the fear, investigate it, work out if the fear is real or is it actually excitement and anticipation?  If it is real, work out what’s really causing it, how can you transform the fear into something else or how can you embark on this new beginning in a way that the fear isn’t crippling or uncomfortable.

Perhaps if it’s a new job, you take the journey to the new location to make sure you know the route and can work out if there is anything you need to be aware of – e.g. train times or parking availability, and then will at the least, lessen a part of the unknown/unfamiliar.

Perhaps it’s to write down all the things that are coming to mind that are worrying you about the new beginning – and then rationalising what you have written.  Are the worries realistic?  How likely are they to come to pass? And if they are very real and very likely – how do you mitigate them?  

The more you can prepare yourself the more you can calm the fear.

If you struggle to prepare or look beyond the fear, find a trusted person in your life that you can work through this with, or reach out to a friendly and supportive professional to help you work through it – there are 3 of us in this month’s panel to start with (pick me pick me 😉) so reach out and together we can kill the fear and embrace the new beginnings!