Dear Success

by PresentPerfect

Entry #1,343

Journal log entry #134003122020:

Progress on Experiment 134-Alpha remains at a standstill. In the interest of making this update worth writing, I am pleased to report a small moment of personal success today. It's been a long, difficult year, but the counseling sessions are starting to pay off.

I was grocery shopping with my friend, Sunset Shimmer, at a store I frequent regularly. The trip was... Let's say, 'fraught'. A nervous nagging at the back of my mind came to a head I experienced what I believe was a panic attack while in the checkout line. I can identify no causative trigger, but that isn't what I wanted to talk about.

I handled this occurrence in what I would characterize as a positive manner when I:

1. Informed my friend that I felt like I couldn't breathe, and was cognizant of the fact that this was likely psychosomatic;
2. Utilized a breathing technique taught to me a few sessions ago by Mrs. Harmony.

Due to this, I was able to calm myself in short order to a degree such that I was able to make egress without further incident.

And in hindsight, I have to say I am quite proud of myself. Only a year before, I likely would have had a complete breakdown in the middle of a public place, followed by weeks of guilt, shame and irreversible self-loathing. It would have been a resoundingly negative experience, one which could have possibly led to me never returning to the store out of embarrassment, and that would mean having to travel much further to purchase my groceries.

I must thank Rarity later for recommending Mrs. Harmony to me.

-Twilight Sparkle

Comments

[Daedalus Aegle]

A success worth celebrating

[Eroraf86]

I can't tell if I should feel reassured or personally attacked.

[FanOfMostEverything]

A victory both small and enormous in magnitude. As is the thought to record it when hitting an experimental logjam.