Have you ever wondered where that phrase comes from?

 

 

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

 

Wiktionary explains the phrase as:

 

“A common experience of tenement living in apartment-style housing in New York City, and other large cities, during the manufacturing boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Apartments were built, similar in design, with the bedrooms located directly above and underneath one another. Thus, it was normal to hear a neighbor removing their shoes in the apartment above. As one shoe made a sound hitting the floor, the expectation for the other shoe to make a similar disturbance was created.”

 

Hence:

 

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

 

The period of expectation before something else happens, usually something undesirable or disturbing.

I have spoken before on this blog about the guilt I feel when all is well in my world, or something great is happening, and now I have realized a better way to describe this feeling  –   I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When things are going well, a part of me finds it hard to relax because subconsciously I am waiting for things to go not so well.

Unfortunately this is because there have been many things in my life, certainly in the last 10 years or so that have not gone well at all.

I have faced bereavement, breakups, chronic illness in my family and myself.

 

Anyone familiar with chronic illness will understand that without much or any warning, things can suddenly take a turn for the worse.

So now I understand a bit more the anxiety I feel when things are going just fine – I am literally waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

So how do I stop this kind of disaster thinking?

I spoke a couple days ago about sacral chakra imbalances and how these could have come about because of root chakra issues, starting with our family of origin.

I am the last girl of 9 siblings in my family and my life as a child was often more chaotic than optimal.

As I a child I was also aware of waiting for the next stressful thing. Often times stressful occasions would feel terrifying simply because I was only a child and could not understand many things.

So I see where this pattern emerged from, this fear of the ups and downs of life.

I hope that by acknowledging this, I will be able to work on this.

Meditation and Mindfulness certainly help anchor me in the present moment but I haven’t managed to completely stop disaster planning in my head just yet.

 

Do you recognize this in yourself in anyway?

Much love Txx