What To Do In A Frustrating Situation + A Story!

Hey Rewilders, welcome to story time with Amanda :)

Sometimes you just have a tough or stressful day. Life can sometimes bring a lot to us, but in the end, it is all about how you choose to see a situation and how you choose to react to it. The choice really comes down to choosing to react from a place of love, or from a place of fear. It sounds simple and easy, but sometimes I find myself still making decisions based on my fear rather than love. We are human and sometimes it happens.

I have a little story for you:

I was in the lab today and really pressed for time. I had a ton of measurements to make, and when I finally got all ready to start, I couldn’t find my vernier caliper (the measuring device)!

By the way, for those of you who don’t know, I am in the process of finishing up graduate school. I graduate in a two weeks woot woot!

 (see, I even rewild in the lab while wearing heels!)

Anyway, now that you understand why I am hanging out in a lab, lets get back to the story…

So I couldn’t find the caliper and I immediately got really frustrated and started running around trying to find one. After 20 minutes of running up and down stairs searching (which turned out to be a good little workout),  I still couldn’t find one. I was angry at the mysterious person who “stole” mine, and if I found out who they were, they were going to know it! I was lost in the heat of the moment, literally… I was sweating at this point :)

The last place I checked was another lab and right as I enter, I see one of my group mates sitting in the corner working with the vernier caliper. In that moment something kind of cool happened. I recognized that I was really annoyed and frustrated. As a student of A Course in Miracles I thought to myself, “I am giving this situation all the meaning it has for me”. I admitted to myself that I choose to get annoyed about this.

And then I thought to myself, “okay, well right now I can make another choice. Either I let him know I am mad, or I can just let it go because it really means nothing”.

I choose the latter :) He handed me the caliper, I said thanks with a smile, and went back to my lab.

Now I know this may seem like a very trivial story, but I bet you could find some very similar situations in your own life. The point is, I recognized that I created and built up the frustration in my own mind based on how I perceived the situation. I alone was responsible for my anger, not the person who took my caliper.

When moments of frustration and anger arise, we often want to blame someone else, but by attacking and blaming other people, you only attack yourself. Next time you find yourself annoyed and frustrated, check yourself before you wreck yourself! Just become aware of the situation and try to always make choices from a place of love and don’t get mad at yourself if you mess up, just keep practicing!

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this!! Have you had a similar situation? How do you deal with stressful situations? Let me know what you think by commenting below!

peace and possibilities fellow rewilders,

Amanda