What's Your Conditioned Response To Certain Situations?

Yesterday, I was sitting in traffic on my way to an appointment. As usual, I didn't give myself enough time to get there and park, and I didn't have enough change for the meter. So, I began to feel anxious about being late and I could feel the pressure build up in my body. This happens almost every time I'm late.

Something clicked and I had this moment of clarity in which I asked myself, "What can I possibly do about this right now? And, if I am late (which I probably will be), what is the worst than can happen?" This brought me tremendous peace in the moment, which was too late to reverse this time anyway.

What I realized was how strongly I react sometimes. And maybe I've conditioned myself to act this way each time I'm late. Is it necessary to be this anxious every single time? Is it worth getting myself all worked up, regardless of the situation or event I'm running late to? Am I Pavlov's dog?

It's not that I don't think anxiety is an appropriate response. This can be a really helpful emotion to shine light on some issues that really need my attention. If anything, I think I may want to explore why I'm always running just a tad late, enough to shake me up. But, I'm going to save that one for another day.

In this particular situation and moment, I think I blew up my anxiety more than was helpful, and probably to the point of being harmful. Given some recent reflection I've been doing on 'worrying,' I wondered if the anxiety I felt in this moment, as well as many other moments, was just a conditioned response to the stimuli of being late. Was I just feeling triggered? It seems so obvious now, but it really hasn't been my entire life.

I'm putting this out there because I'm curious if you too have a conditioned response to certain fear-inducing situations.

• Do you respond with fear, worry or anxiety to specific situations?
• Are you triggered most with relationships, money, career, being late, etc.?
• What is it that evokes negative emotions in you?
• Is the emotion just as strong regardless of the situation?
• Is there an old story or tape you're playing that can be rewritten, thus evoking a different response? 

Thoughts, comments, questions? I'd love to hear from you.