This weekend we went to visit my brother & his partner, in their new home & to celebrate being reunited for the first time since Christmas 2019 we headed to Thorpe Park on the Sunday.
My kids are 13 & 10 & they have never really been to a theme park & so they were obviously thrilled & excited. I haven’t thrown myself a round on a rollercoaster for a good couple of decades & not wishing to let the side down I merrily but utterly terrified agreed to join them all on the first thrill ride.
And then the 2nd & then the 3rd, all in quick succession, such were the short queues.
But I staggered off the 3rd ride, which was the tamest of the 3, lurching past my daughter & throwing up in the corner of the park.
i Immediately felt better but delicate so my brother & I sat out the next few intense thrill rides & had some beautiful time re-connecting & catching up on what has been a life changing 18 months or so for us both.
See? The Universe gives us what we need!
We joined in for a couple of more gentle water rides & only waited for 1 ride for 45 minutes, the rest no more then 15 minute waits so we got to do everything we wanted to.
I joined the kids for the last thrill ride which was just very high, no corkscrew twirls & most importantly it was short! Go out on a high & all that!
And we finished the day plunging down one of the tallest water rides & getting utterly soaked in the process – what a perfect way to end a fantastic day!
We were blessed with a mostly dry day, enough people to feel like some semblance of normality was returning & not that many masks because we were outside.
We all commented how that was one of the most normal days we’d all experienced in the past 18 months…which is actually hilarious because it’s not like we go to theme parks all the time!
We got home late last night & it was only today I was reflecting on the chundering, reflecting that had never happened to me before but not being all together surprised.
Knowing, as I do now that I am HSP (25/28 on the online test, pretty categorical!), I had wondered how I’d deal with the crowds & the rides so I wasn’t surprised I had quite a violent reaction.
My fight or flight response was totally activated by the first ride which I found terrifying: my sympathetic nervous system was in high alert activating the fight & flight response. Cortisol flooding my system. And this all needs some time to come back to equilibrium. For the fight & flight response to calm & for the rest & digest system of the parasympathetic nervous system to come back into alignment. And there just wasn’t time to reset as the rides were back to back.
And yes of course you’re probably wondering why didn’t I just say no & sit them out: I didn’t realize how stressed my body was until threw up.
My body, thinking it was under attack, knowing this is not the time to be digesting food & resting, got rid of my breakfast so that it could run away, hide or fight! Fight or flight in full effect!
We got home late & so this morning I started gently with yoga, face yoga & meditation. I lit a cleansing stick & took a long shower, cleansing myself of any energy I had picked up yesterday.
I suggested the kids cleanse their energy too with a shower explaining how much energy they will have absorbed from their own energetic field because of the constant thrills & that they may have absorbed energy from being around everyone yesterday especially since we been living so much a generally quieter, simpler life of late, thanks to the pandemic.
What I loved most was that they both whole heartedly agreed & told me theY felt better.
They had loved the day but whilst tea was cooking last night, they collapsed onto the bed to process & reflect & recover. I love how they intuitively know when to protect their energy levels.
The energy piece for me has been a really powerful part of healing & transforming through menopause. I have experienced so many subtle shifts in the past year or so that have been profound & I think part of that is thanks to a better understanding of energy & managing my energy.
And these subtle shifts are transformational because you don’t get up the same person.
If you’d like to learn more why not join us for an hour of energetic chat (in both content & energy itself!) & meditation? We meet every Thursday on Zoom to chat about all things meditation, mindfulness, spirituality, quantum physics & the quantum realm, manifestation, energy work, the universe, processing, unity, duality, raising our vibration & lot’s more. We almost always end up laughing & it is a small group so it’s a completely safe space.
To find out more please email me at alex@alexbannard.com