My $12 voucher meltdown

I was traveling (out of the country) for several weeks this summer visiting my husband’s family, and quite literally all of our flights were either delayed or cancelled. 😂

The symptom story that I want to share, however, started with a 21 hour delay.

It was the fault of the airline (lack of crew) and there were no rebooking options.

Don’t worry - now I can laugh about it!!!! 🫠

Every other flight was completely full, so I had no choice but to wait. I stood in line for almost 2 hours with a crowd of equally pissed-off passengers waiting for hotel + meal vouchers., waited over an hour for the hotel shuttle, and then finally got into my hotel room at 2am… after waiting 2+ hours in the hotel lobby along with all the other voucher-holders. It was a complete zoo.

However, the thing that really got me going was single $12 meal voucher that I received.

Twelve dollars.

For an entire 21 hours?? I was shocked at how ludicrous it was. What does $12 even buy at an airport?? A water bottle and granola bar??

And that was the conflict shock moment for me.
Not when the delay happened.
Not when I had to reschedule and pay the change fee for the next flight I was going to miss (which was with another airline).

But when they handed me that pathetic little piece of paper??

The measly $12 meal voucher (and complete lack of customer service/compensation from the airline). That was the thing I simply could NOT swallow.

Anyhow - I finally made it to our destination more than 24 hours late (due to how the delayed flight then messed up our subsequent travel plans to get to our final destination).

And… surprise, surprise: I got “sick” immediately.

Fever. Sore throat. Chills. Fatigue. Headache.

Which, I totally expected. It was so predictable, in fact, that even my husband was laughing about it.

I’m sharing this story to highlight that I’m not immune to conflict. No one is.

You can know GNM inside and out, and that doesn’t make you any less conflict-prone. We’re all still human, and experiencing conflicts is totally normal.

I’m not floating through life totally chill.
I still get f*cking pissed off when things like this happen.
I have my wee little meltdowns on occasion ;)

And yes - I still experience healing phases too. And that’s okay!!!

But the difference now is… I don’t make it a whole thing.

I don’t have a whole story around “catching something” or needing to “boost my immune system.”
I didn’t go into detective mode trying to overanalyze a conflict.
I didn’t freak out about being conflict active (even though I knew I was, and I immediately knew I’d have a healing phase upon resolution).
I didn’t panic.

I feel like I was actually able to laugh about it fairly quickly and move into resolution instead of remaining conflicted about the situation for the entire trip (or being further conflicted/beating myself up for how conflicted I knew I was).

We all have our little meltdowns, and the worst thing we can do is then beat ourselves up for it and play the whole blame + shame game.

I just let it be a normal response to a really hard-to-swallow travel experience.
And my body handled it. Just as it always does.

Sure, having symptoms while on vacation (or anytime, really) is never fun… but it is what it is.
Approaching it with radical acceptance is one way to not become even further conflicted - and then continue experiencing additional healing phases as a result.

We’re human.

And… lemme tell you… travel can be CHOCK FULL of conflicting experiences.

I’m just so grateful that I know the body of knowledge that is German New Medicine - because I knew exactly what was going on in my body… and, more importantly, why.

{if you’re wondering what the heck is German New Medicine?!? click here}

I didn’t panic or worry when I started having symptoms.
Old me would’ve been freaking out that I “caught something,” or that my immune system wasn’t strong enough, or worried that my husband would “catch it” too - which for sure would’ve resulted in successive conflict shocks.

But guess what?
My husband didn’t have any symptoms… because we weren’t even flying on the same outbound flight.
He didn’t have the same conflict shock experience that I had.

In fact, despite me being symptomatic for a few days while we were staying with his family… none of them got “sick.”

They were totally fine - because none of them experienced the same conflict shock that I did.

So if you needed that reminder today - here it is:
You don’t have to be perfect.
You don’t have to bypass your very real frustration or just “be more chill.”

Sometimes it’s just about letting your body do its thing and normalizing healing phase symptoms. Not always striving to be conflict-free or viewing symptoms as a sign of “failure.”

Perhaps my wee little meltdown actually helped me move through the frustration and be able to laugh about it sooner?? Who knows! 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’ve said this multiple times and will continue to say it again - I’m not claiming to be an authority on GNM or one of the top experts out there.

I’m just a regular human who really loves learning + sharing about this beautiful framework (which IS NOT a magic quick fix, btw) that has really helped improve my overall quality of life and shift my perception in a really meaningful way. Just playing around with making little perceptual tweaks and sharing my own lived experience so that you can better understand what it’s like to truly live your live from within this paradigm.

So, my goal with my content (and with all of my offerings) is to help you actually get the most out of this framework in a way that feels good and makes sense to you as a unique individual, and actually helps you improve your quality of life and cultivate more of what you want out of life.

More good feelings. More acceptance. More grace. More understanding. More fun.

Less pathologizing. Less quick fixes. Less sensationalized, grandiose claims. Less shame. Less “rules.”

Stay curious,

Abigail

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