Having recently returned from a holiday with her Grandparents, my daughter arrived home sporting a huge blister on her ankle. It was a gross, fluid filled bite.

Being the doctor I am not, I decided we needed to operate. Carefully sterilizing a needle and using lots of antiseptic we drained the blister.

The next day she found it painful and rubbed against her socks. Again forgetting my lack of PHD, I applied a gauze and a bandage so she could go out with her friends.

This was probably a mistake!

The following morning when removing the said items, the gauze had become a bit stuck. All it needed was a quick tug. My word the drama that ensued!

My daughter wanted time to mentally prepare herself for a world of pain. She allowed her thoughts to build it up and created terrible scenarios in her head.

I explained that doing it straight away without giving it any thought may cause her a few seconds of pain but by putting it off she was creating a much longer period of pain for herself.

It got me thinking, how often do we do this to ourselves throughout life?

We all have to face situations that cause us a level of discomfort but how often do we put it off or go over and over it in our heads, therefore prolonging our misery?

In most situations facing it head on means that our discomfort is much shorter and in reality as with the blister, these things are rarely as bad as we build them up to be. The longer we put them of the more time we have to let our imaginations create a horror story out of them.

So next time we have to face something that causes us some form of pain, why not try facing it head on and freeing ourselves of the agonising period of worry?