Subject: Re: Travel Nerves
Hey Nelly,

Those all powerful research heads have mapped out how different emotions looks in the body. They found that anxiety and excitement are very close cousins. They look almost the same from a physiological stand point, and can sometimes be indistinguishable from each other.

So for those who feel excited about traveling it is natural that the excitement sometimes turn into anxiety, and vice versa for that matter.

My suggestion would be to name the actual things that makes you anxious, and find out what about them makes you anxious. Reducing it to specifics usually helps me. When you said: "its not just 9/11, its everything that goes with it". I would suggest you actually sit down and name the "everything". What does that actually refer to?

For instance if I am going back to DK for a visit my specific anxiety centers around family relationships and jetlag.

Where if I am going to travel to someplace completely new and culturally very different then I have different concerns, anxieties and excitements.

Also, you might want to ask yourself if you are anxious or excited. Renaming the anxiety to excitement would probably help in milder situations. It is more fun to ride a wave of excitement than it is to feel anxious. Even if the resulting sleeplessness or whatever else goes with the excitement is no different than feeling anxious.

Warm regards, Malene Sonoma CA,