Take a Deep Breath… Relax
I was shocked to read a USA Today newstory about two soccer fans that were killed because they were cheering too loudly.
What do you do when people annoy you? Do you pull out the artillery and blow them away? Do you hold on to the anger and take it out on some unsuspecting, innocent person (a spouse, child or close friend)? Or do you take a deep breath… and relax?
I doubt I’m the only one sees how much anger and frustration people are experiencing. I doubt I’m the only only who feels overwhelmed with my own levels of stress and frustration.
But we need to find a better way to deal with it.
A couple of weeks ago I had a meltdown. I was cussing, throwing my hands up in frustration, giving up on things that were important to me and basically having a temper tantrum worthy of any two-year-old. I just had a better vocabulary.
After calming down from my tantrum I took several deep breaths. I spent a few minutes to figure out why I was feeling so overwhelmed. Then I talked with the two people who were impacting (notice I didn’t say causing) my stress level.
My daughter and I came up with a workable plan and timetable for getting her high school graduation announcements in the mail. We agreed on a time table for getting her prom dress pinned up so that I could hem it. You see my stress was caused because these were two big things that needed to be done by a certain date. Yet I didn’t feel like Beth was helping at all. And the truth is she wasn’t. But that wasn’t her fault. I hadn’t given her a time limit. I just kept waiting for her to help me. Once we talked it over and established that I only had certain blocks of time to help her she was able to adjust to my schedule rather than keep putting it off. And I accepted that if she didn’t fulfill her part of the tasks, then it was not a failing on my part if they didn’t get done.
My son and I had to talk about a costume I’m making for him to wear to a convention at the end of June. We needed to shop for a pattern, select fabric, and make the costume. Again I was feeling the crunch of time. Again I explained about the blocks of time that I had available to make this costume. I gave him an idea of how long it would take to sew it. Working back from the convention date I was able to convince him of the need to get the costume started immediately. He didn’t understand what was involved in the process. He didn’t appreciate that I had other commitments to my time besides just working on his costume.
It all boils down to communication. We need to talk things over and learn to relax.
The incident in the Thailand resort was tragic. Two lives were taken and countless lives were destroyed.
I wish they had all just taken a deep breath… relaxed… and walked away. Don’t you? Won’t you?
