Don’t sweat the small stuff…

I’m sure many of you heard the phrase, “don’t sweat the small stuff.” How many times do you find yourself doing just that, sweating the small stuff? There are many things that happen in a day that we could get irritated about… feelings of disappointment…being angry… or even depressed (just to name a few). I love this quote by J. Cole:

“The bad news is nothing lasts forever. The good news is nothing lasts forever” Do me a favor and re-read that quote three times slow. Go back and read it… I’ll wait, lol. I’m not literally waiting but you get the point.

Let’s start with an example of being irritated and allowing that irritation to change your mood. Here’s the scenario: The technician for your AC unit is scheduled to come out between 9-12. You sit at home awaiting their arrival and they come at 12:01 or better yet they don’t show up at all. They end up calling you at 12:00 to tell you there is a delay in scheduling. Now you get irritated because you just spent three hours waiting and had to take the day off. Instead, you can remember what you did during the time you spent waiting. Maybe you got to finish a book you started reading, or you got to take care of some cleaning that you had put off, or maybe you relaxed and watched some television. Consider thinking about the positive that came from the time spent. I’m not saying to let it go because we should definitely express our displeasure in the situation. However, by readjusting our perspective we can be less irritated.

Now, let’s look at feelings of disappointment. It’s your wedding day and your wedding is happening outside. Guess what happens? …you got it, it rains. You can either let that feeling of disappointment take over and ruin your special day or you can let a little optimism take a front seat. Yes, things aren’t going as planned but we can be hopeful that things will turn around. We may have a back up plan in place and now we move to plan B or maybe we reserved some umbrellas and we make a theme of the event with umbrellas that match the color scheme. Tap into your optimistic views… this will buffer the stress. I’m laughing as I’m typing this because I have a few pessimistic friends and they see the worse in almost everything! It’s okay if this person is you… practicing mindfulness can help condition your way of thinking over time (it will not happen overnight).

Take a moment each day or every so often and keep a written or mental journal of all that you enjoy out of life. Visualize these things/people/places, etc. let them bring you peace. When we do this those feelings of irritation or disappointment will become smaller. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m human and I have moments of being disappointed, irritated, defeated, etc. However, practicing mindfulness has made a huge impact in my life. It makes those moments easier to overcome.

Honestly, I was angry today and after letting it out to my spouse and best friend I decided to take a mindful moment and release the thoughts/people that made me angry. I took a drive, opened the sun roof, put on my shades and mindfully listened to my surroundings. I listened to the sounds of the trees, the mufflers on the passing vehicles, the sound of the tires on the pavement and asked myself, how am I going to solve this problem? How can I get away from this feeling? I opened up the reasoning portion of my brain and allowed myself to search for an answer. I noticed how those emotions made me feel. I acknowledged those feelings. I then offered some kindness (mindfully and internally) to myself and the people that made me angry. I decided not to become a victim of my emotions. “The bad news is nothing lasts forever. The good news is nothing lasts forever.” I’m going to stop here because I could give a ton of other examples. I will give more as time goes on so continue to follow me and read my blog each and every Sunday.

Until next time my Kings and Queens,

Fontashia