I'm terrible with suspense. If I'm waiting to hear about something important to me, I've learned to get on with other things and stay active but each time I think about the incoming verdict, wish I could fast forward.
I guess it started when I was little and couldn't handle the Nancy Drew cliffhangers. Even though I might be on book 13 out of hundreds, I'd worry she was going to die so would always flip forward to check that she was alive and well at the end. I still read enough of the end of books (not whole paragraphs but checking for certain names etc.) to reassure me as I progress. This makes more sense with the suspense filled Kathy Reichs, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich and Sara Paretsky but I do it with biographies, too. Autobiographies are a bit easier (they lived to tell the tale) but...
And when they finish a TV series with a cliffhanger, I regularly check online for episode guides (US sites normally have them up in advance) to check who's still alive and OK. "Spoiler alerts", they call them yet they enable me to enjoy what's coming without too much concern for all the fictional characters.
I'm an extreme case but can you think of areas in your life where suspense spoils things for you? How can you learn to enjoy it more? OK, if not enjoy it, manage it?
What else could you do so you're not waiting by the phone / letterbox / email?
Are there certain programmes and films you can watch with ease while others are too tense with suspense?
Think about the things that make you feel most anxious. What message might these storylines have for your own life?
© Eve Menezes Cunningham / www.applecoaching.com 2008.
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