FOMO

I learned this term from a good friend Jackie, who has taught me a ton about surfing and loving freely.  It was when my friends Julia and Kelly were visiting for my birthday that I discovered the condition that I have suffered from for many many years!  Kelly, Julia and I had just gone for a long horse back ride down the beach and were returning to Coco Loco to drop off the horses when we ran across Jackie.  She asked what we had been up to that morning.  We returned the same question and she answered, “Dude we went wakeboarding this morning up and down the coast.”  All of a sudden that hot itchy panicky feeling rises in my throat and I have no words, I’m horrified that I missed wakeboarding and all I can think about is how amazing it sounds to be whipping up and down the beaches of Coco Loco with all my friends wakeboarding on surf boards screaming my head off, hair blowing in the wind……and then I finally come back to the present moment. Jackie says, “Dude, you just had a serious case of FOMO amiga.”  “What’s that?,” I ask. “Dude, Fear of Missing Out, don’t worry I suffer from it too.” She says.

Seriously, I have issues!  I have this fear of missing out on all the amazing things life has to offer.  Probably why I run around full-speed from sunset to sun down.  My mom was always telling me to just be present in the moment and stop racing ahead to the next event, but how can I when there are so many cool things out there to experience?  I’m doing better these days.  I’ve self medicated with yoga, meditation, and learning to play the guitar to calm the heck down and live in the moment.  It’s just so much more fulfilling to be in that one moment and disconnect from all that is happening around you.  With that being said, I think there is also a healthy amount of FOMO that drives me to make the most out of life.  It makes me who I am.  Running half marathons is half the physical challenge and half FOMO, knowing that I can’t die not having the experience of running one.  Low and behold I really liked it!  Just like surfing, I can't live this close to amazing surf beaches and leave this beautiful place not having surfed.  Again I’d like to attribute many of the things I do to FOMO, because I may never have tried it in the first place with out my mental condition.  Thank you Jackie for diagnosing me.

So I hope that I have instilled a bit of FOMO in my readers to seize the opportunities that come your way because you never know if it will present itself again.