Very early this morning Max, that “the sky is falling/disaster is imminent” voice in my head, almost had me by the throat before I came to my senses. I awoke with a start and realized that I had slept in on the morning I had to drive my daughter to the SeaTac airport. It was 4:20am and an hour past the time we had planned to leave our friend’s home in Bellingham. Eeyikes!  I had even set 2 alarm clocks to be absolutely sure we wouldn’t sleep in.

And now Max was having a field day. “How could you sleep in like that? You will never make it to the airport on time. Lani is going to miss her flight. Even if she gets another flight, it’ll cost a lot more money and take precious days off of her already brief vacation. Her dream vacation is ruined…”

I knew that I had to stop Max in his tracks because I knew that worrying was just going to create what I didn’t want to happen. I took a deep breath and started calming myself…I reminded myself that the Google map indicated that it would take 1¾ to 2½ hours to get to the airport, depending on traffic  and we’d likely not have much traffic at this hour. We’d fly through Seattle on those express lanes. If I could just relax and feel good, things would go much more smoothly for us.

As I thought about relaxing, a catchy old song by Dinah Washington, came to mind: Relax Max.  Someone had recently sent me a funny video featuring this song in the background and I just loved the song. I started singing along with Dinah’s throaty voice. “Reeeeeeeelax Max, your nerves are just like jumping jacks Max. Your heart is thumping with a crazy sound. Hear it pound. Bumping, bumping, bumping, jumping up and down.  … Stay cool, fool, just take it easy that’s the rule, fool. The evening hasn’t even started yet. So my pet, control yourself, control yourself don’t get upset.”

Behind the steering wheel I realized I was now relaxed, smiling at my crazy mind. I started to think about things I could appreciate about my daughter and my life, which raised my mood even more.  My daughter nodded off to sleep and I listened to an inspirational dialogue with Abraham as the miles slipped by, feeling more uplifted by the moment as Max was soothed back into nothingness.

We finally arrived at the airport and I found my way easily through the nearly empty parking garage to the Delta Airline section. We followed clearly marked signs to the ticket counter where a friendly Delta agent helped us to sign in with the self serve machine. We gave over Lani’s baggage and walked to the security check-in with time to spare.

Less than 30 minutes later I was heading back home, looking forward to another visit with my friend in Bellingham.

So if you’ve got a dream busting saboteur like Max on board, you might like to try these soothing and calming techniques yourself.  Stop.  Breathe. Relax. Reach for thoughts that feel good.  Find a good feeling tune that lifts your spirits. Find things to appreciate in your life right now. And expect things to go well.

Listen to the song Relax, Max.

~~~~~~~~~
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