Page 1 of The Funnel to You

Chapter One

Sasha

Toffee Nut Iced Coffee

Social Post: Finishing up some edits and then this girl is going for a walk. Do you think there’s room on this water bottle for one more sticker? #coloradogirl #noco #sashaloveslipstick #afternoonwalks

Image Description: Water bottle covered in stickers next to my notebook and laptop.

“What do you mean, it’s gone?!?”

I am freaking out right now. I uploaded a thirty-minute full makeup tutorial last night and it is gone. I cannot find it. It’s not in pending uploads. And it’s not in my editing drive either. Where did it go?? This took me hours and I cannot deal with this right now.

Call me basic, but I have to be super strategic about when I record content around my full-time job. And all of those hours of work are now gone.

I take a few deep breaths and look around the room. I’m at home by myself in my apartment. My roommates Kylie and Carter are at work right now so I was taking advantage of the quiet to get some content finalized.

At least that was the plan.

Now I’m trying not to have a full-blown panic attack. I can feel the tightness in my chest growing and the feeling that I need to go run around while also curling into a ball tells me I need to get in front of this quickly before it gets much worse.

“Okay, Sasha, deep breaths. Remember your visual practices. Here we go – three things that are red that I can see.”

I glance around the room frantically before I spot my coffee mug.

“There’s my mug,” Before focusing too hard on the white floral design on my mug, I continue searching for the next item.

“My sparkly pen.” Kylie gave that to me when I hit my first 5,000 followers on Instagram. She’s bought me a new one at each new milestone. They write perfectly and I love having that reminder of my accomplishments close to me.

“Then there’s my favorite lipstick.” Is red my all time favorite lipstick color? No. But I enjoy a bold look and this red really makes my features pop.

I feel my heart rate decrease slightly. When my therapist first had me learn grounding practices a few years ago, I thought he was crazy. How can something so simple pull me out of an anxiety attack? But here I am, going through this process – and, it works.

I continue the process by finding things that are soft. My favorite fuzzy socks that I am wearing – hard surface floors mean I am always cold, so socks are a requirement. My purple throw blanket on the couch and then my Estes Park hoodie on the back of my chair finish off that section.

This last one is a suggestion I made to my therapist and he loved it so I incorporated it into my grounding practice – three things that bring me joy.

I see my little crystal elephant on my bookshelf. Its home is right next to my latest reading material – a mix between personal development books and romance books. I just finished a new cowboy series and now have fallen down the rabbit hole of reading everything from that author before I move on to the next author or series.

I walk over to the figurine and hold it in my hand for a moment while I keep looking around for my last two things that bring me joy. The picture on the wall of Carter, Kylie, and myself from our Savannah trip last year catches my attention. That was such a fun week. I miss the beach. Okay, and my coffee mug on my desk again. I focus my eyes there as I go to sit back in my chair.

I finish off by taking a few deep breaths and closing my eyes so I can focus on the feel of my socks and the smoothness of the crystal I still hold in my hand. Maybe I should make more coffee before I start working again.

“No, it’s the afternoon – you need to be done with the coffee for today.”

Yes, I talk to myself out loud. It’s quiet at the apartment right now and I need to process things.

And no, I do not have a coffee problem.

After sitting for a few more minutes and taking myself out of my freak out moment, I’m feeling better. But I am not ready to tackle the video again. I save all the raw footage again, just in case, and grab my hoodie and water bottle then head out the door.

I need to take a walk.

This is probably one of my favorite things about living in Colorado – there are so many places to walk outside and enjoy just being. It’s June and the weather is perfect. It’s early evening so most people are home having dinner so the trails near the apartment are quiet. Still sunny and dry, but quiet.

I slip in one earbud and turn on my Meghan Trainor playlist and my workout tracker on my phone and start my walk. I’m not sure if this will be a two or three mile walk today, but I will see how I’m doing.

I text Kylie to let her know I am out for a bit and tell her I should be home in an hour or so depending on how things go so she doesn’t freak out if I’m not home when she gets off work. I get a little nervous when I leave the house so having someone who knows where I am makes me feel a little safer, even if it’s just for a walk. And Kylie tends to be the mom of the three of us. Which works since she and Carter are together. Finally. It took a long time for them to admit that they liked each other and they are seriously so cute together.

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