This past week has been very frustrating. First, our kitchen sink backed up and then we lost electricity to our garage. My husband and I tried to remedy the problems ourselves but weren’t successful. We had to call “our guy” to take care of the problems. Oh yeah, we also had him fix some loose boards on our relatively brand-new deck. What made it even more frustrating is that my hubby and I got a little snippy with each other. That’s what happens when you spend many hours trying to fix something that you thought you could fix. You feel like you want to pull your hair out. I probably could list a few more things but I don’t want to sound whiny. Why is it that something always seems to go wrong or needs to be fixed? So frustrating!
What frustrations are you dealing with these days? I was talking with Lisa about this, and she quickly listed a few frustrations of her own — dealing with ants in her condo for weeks, not ever being able to find parking downtown, and work-related frustrations. I guess life presents those opportunities to learn lessons.
Feeling frustrated or upset happens when the outcome of a situation or event doesn’t turn out the way you expected. Of course, this causes stress. And, if you can’t let go, the stress increases within you. Here are some things that I try to do to help alleviate some of the frustration and stress in my life.
- I stop and breathe. I do deep belly breaths to help reduce the stress and tension in my body.
- I step away from what’s going on. I’ll go outside and enjoy the sunshine, and my yard, and continue with the breath work.
- I’ll take a walk (actually I need to do more of this in general). It makes me feel calmer and more energetic.
- I practice mindfulness. This includes my daily mantra of being grateful, breathing, and resting my body.
- And…I’ve been known to go outside and scream. It does help.
“You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” — Ralph Marston
What do you do to help lower the stress and frustrations in your life? I would love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below.
By Linda S
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