Lauren's Journey: All my dreams are coming true – and I'm trying not to panic

I didn't expect success to feel so scary. The panic of having all your dreams come true is real. Let's talk about it.

Over the past two weeks, I announced two HUGE and EXCITING things that are part of a major dream come true for me:

1. My book sold to Entangled Publishing!

2. It has a friggin’ fabulous cover that I love!

These are absolute dreams come true and are better than I ever even dreamed they could be.

And I’m scared shitless.

Technically, what I am is ecstatic, but my body reads excitement as fear.

All bodies do.

Our bodies can be both confident and scared at once.

According to my general practitioner, naturopath, therapist, coach, and functional nutritionist (aka a lot of professionals who know wtf they’re talking about), our bodies read all stress the same.

It doesn’t matter whether we are stressed from overwhelming joy or overwhelming sadness, our nervous system reacts in the same manner:

• Adrenaline rush.

• Whirring mind.

• Unable to calm down and feel safe enough to sleep.

• Loss of appetite.

• Blocked processing of emotions.

• Weeping.

• Need to run.

• No energy at all.

• Adrenaline crash.

Those are natural reactions to stress, regardless of the source.

And I wrote a post to help you with them, if you’re feeling this too.

However, saying “this is a natural reaction” didn’t help my body fight off the intense panic I felt when I found out some really huge news this week.

Here’s what happened:

This post is about to get really personal, and therefore I’m putting up a paywall. All of the School for Writers® educational posts are free, but when I get personal and share intimate and private information about my own journey, a paywall helps protect me from trolls and allows you all to get vulnerable in the comments as well. Want to be a part of that deeper connection? Sign-up to join the Inner Circle today.