Last night I was sulking like a bitch. I was in a foul mood and was telling myself all the things I didn’t want to hear. If someone else would have spoken to me that way they’d have earned themselves a right good arse kicking, fact.
Luckily I know how to deal with that infantile, cry baby in there that makes an appearance from time to time. I watch something funny and drown the little shit right out. Moohahaha!!
Imagine my “disappointment” when my funny, ‘cheer me up’ DVD turned out to be damaged. It started pausing, jumping, skipping and generally became unwatchable. Eek, basically. The DVD was a hired one as well so I was already drafting up my angry complaint email in my head. Meanwhile, the button that ejects the DVD from my laptop decided to stop working. Smart.
Deep breath… okay, I can eject the DVD from the ‘My Computer’ folder. That’s that problem solved.
Quick inspection of the DVD reveals no scratches or marking. Hmmm.
Might as well grab a cloth and scrub the living daylights out of the damn thing anyway, just in case… it’s just the ‘done thing’. Back in the laptop and…. MAGIC! It worked.
Big deal, you had a dirty DVD. (true)
What I noticed though, is that when I was stressing out over God-knows-what and was giving it the old ‘why me?!’ I automatically assumed the worst… that the DVD was actually damaged. And even though it was really obvious, it seriously didn’t cross my mind at first to eject the disk internally. That inner tantrum-thrower was too busy getting all worked up!
It was only when I took a second or two to gather my thoughts that I realised there was a different (and really simple) method of approach to work around my restriction. Then even though at face value the underlying problem was completely invisible (no markings on the disk), just trying the thing that normally clears away the problem, did just that… allowing me to spend the remainder of the evening laughing my arse off. Result.
The daft little metaphor
When you’re feeling restricted and life’s not playing out properly, stop and think a minute, because:
- There’s always a way around the restriction.
- Any apparent damage probably isn’t actually damage and certainly isn’t permanent.
- You might not be able to see at first glance why life isn’t running smoothly, but if you do a few things that you know normally make you feel good and make life a bit sweeter, the elusive little specks of grime that are holding you back will generally disappear, setting you back on track.
I’m talking about things like:
- Showering away the negative energy, literally scrubbing yourself clean in the shower
- Doing some exercise to get the old endorphins flowing
- Watching/reading/doing something that inspires you, motivates you or makes you laugh
- Getting hydrated
- Getting some good healthy food down your neck
- Having a chat with someone who makes you feel good about yourself
- Letting out any aggression on a pillow or punch bag. Yeah that’s right, slap the stupid thing
- Tart yourself up so you look good
Doing stuff like this cleans out the cobwebs and freshens you up. It relieves stress and gets you thinking straight again. It’s kind of like recalibrating yourself.
Just thought I’d share that with you.
[photo sources: crying baby: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos, idea: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos]
