My lizard and my bank

Yesterday afternoon, I returned to the house to find the voice message light blinking on my phone. I wasn't expecting any calls so I was curious as I picked up the handset. "Hello, this is Lorraine calling from your bank...". That was enough. I pressed 7 to delete and the call was erased. My primitive, reptilian lizard brain had taken over.

I felt fear when I heard that disembodied voice from the bank and sure enough, my instincts kicked in and I avoided danger by deleting the message. In the milliseconds before I'd deleted the call, I'd just felt panic. In the seconds afterwards, I thought "oh no, there was a problem with my mortgage payment. No, that can't be. There's plenty of money in the account". I then thought "oh, have I been late paying my credit card? No, I distinctly remember paying the bill on August 18". And then, finally,"I wonder what she was calling about".

My rational brain can be just that - rational - so I remembered a feature on my phone that displays the name and telephone number of missed calls. I scrolled down and found the direct line to the bank. It was late in the day so I resolved to call Lorraine in the morning and see why she had phoned.

I called Lorraine at the bank this morning and she had just telephoned to see if I needed any additions or changes to my services. She was surprised and grateful that I had called her back, and said so. It was actually a very pleasant encounter.

When I was listening to that brief fragment of Lorraine's voice message, my jaw clenched, my chest tightened and my breathing became shallow. Those feelings of stress gradually dissipated but I felt slightly uneasy until I worked the remnants out at the climbing gym later that night. When I finished the live conversation with Lorraine this morning, I felt light, able to breathe and rewarded myself by going for a walk with my dog.

Martha Beck suggests naming your inner lizard and calming it down. I've just named my lizard. She's called Lorraine and, in the future, whenever I feel that primitive irrational fear, I will try to think of lightness, breath and a pleasant real person.