My Son's Nightmare..

A few years ago, my son Greyson came down to our room in the middle of the night.
He was probably 10 years old.
My oldest daughter Addy was with him because he went and asked her to come with him.
Their rooms are upstairs and sometimes it is scary to come downstairs to our room by yourself.
He was scared from a nightmare, and he slipped into bed next to me.
I could feel him shaking.
I told him to take some deep breaths and he did, but he was having a hard time calming down.
His heart was beating fast.
He asked me, “daddy, when is it time to get up?”
I told him we could get up and talk now if he wanted.

We went to the kitchen, and I got out a notecard and a pen.
I asked him what he was feeing.
He said, “I don’t want to talk about it…it will only make it worse.”
I told him it was ok to feel all the things he was feeling, and I wanted him to write them down.

So, the first thing he wrote was, "I feel scared".
"What else?" I asked.
He said, "I feel like I bothered Addy by asking for her help."
"What else?" I said.
"I feel shaky."
"I feel cold."
"I feel sad."
"I feel happy that it is the Fourth of July.” (It happened to be the 4th of July :))

He asked, “Why are you making me say all the things I am feeling?”
I said, “Because it is ok to feel all of these things, and they can lead us to show us what we need."

I then asked him what the opposite of each of those things were.
The opposite of scared was brave.
Bothering Addy turned into love.
Shaky turned into strong.
Cold turned into warm.
And we left happy just as it was.

I then had him write out these new words into a statement, “I Greyson, am a brave, loving, strong, warm and a happy kid.”

I then had him write it out again.

And again.

“I Greyson, am a brave, loving, strong, warm and a happy kid.”

Again…

“I Greyson, am a brave, loving, strong, warm and a happy kid.”

He wrote it out 5 times and by the time he was done his posture was different.

He asked, “why are you having me do this?”
I said, “because I want you to know the truth of who you are and that I have to do this too sometimes when I get scared.”
"When do you get scared and overwhelmed dad?” he asked.
I then took him into my front room and showed him my stack of journals.
I said, "These are where I give all my fears over to God."

If you are reading this and overwhelmed, scared, shaky, cold and afraid of bothering people, know you aren't alone.

Take some time today and write out everything you are feeling and then write out the opposite.
Turn it into a statement you can read to yourself a few times when you get overwhelmed again.

This is how we renew our minds when they are all jumbled up.

I hope you have an incredible day.