Choosing to Tell Myself a Different Story

I am reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed (you know, the book that movie starring Reese Witherspoon is based on) and I came across this quote yesterday. It really struck a chord. Even though she is talking about something wholly different than what we're experiencing, I could immediately apply it to our situation.

"It was a deal I'd made with myself months before and the only thing that allowed me to hike alone. I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story..."

I am afraid I won't be able to tolerate the medication. I am afraid IVF won't work, even after all we've been through and all I'm about to put my body through and after all of the expense. But it's time to tell myself a different story. Even if it ends up not being true. Because like Cheryl on her hiking journey across the Pacific Crest Trail, if I allow fear to overtake me, this journey of ours is doomed.

So this new story will be one of success and hope. It may be tough, but I will handle the medication. We will implant one beautiful embryo and it will stick and it will grow and grow and grow and I will give birth to our child. Finally, after so many long years. It is going to work. It is going to work. It is going to work.