When walking over a bridge, it’s much easier if you aren’t concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. It's easier if you aren't worried about how important each step may be in the grand scheme of getting you to the other side. If you are questioning your balance and calculating the distance you might fall, you're tormenting yourself with imagined failure. That's not only more difficult, it‘s painful.
Stick to the plan. Bring yourself back to the plan. Don’t require success at every moment or demand that your state of mind always be at its highest pitch. That will signal (convincingly, but falsely) irreparable inadequacy.
Do what you can, when you can. Conserve the dazzle for when it’s really needed. Ask for and seek help from wherever it may be available. Don’t succumb to destructive and distracting fatigue and fear.
Exercise the strength and knowledge you’ve developed through hard-won experience. Remain grateful and sensitive to what is happening at this moment. Try to be aware of what’s around you – the breath that sends you energy, the line of the horizon where green meets blue, the distinct sound of the bird perched somewhere nearby. Breathe with an appreciation of the magic involved in this act of walking.
Rest, eat, move. Don’t give aid or comfort to the fears that are begging for your company. Stick to the plan. Study the plan. Add to or adjust the plan. Expand it. Refine it. Realize that this is what your soul, your unconscious, your solid self, has assembled as what it knows is needed, as what it knows is essential to move you forward. Trust it and make use of it.
Live long and prosper.
