Love Your Unexpected Problems

Yesterday was pretty interesting. It put my new thought processes to the test. Yesterday I had a nail in one of my tires. I got in the car that morning and the low tire pressure light was on. I found the bad tire and got the pressure back up. After careful inspection, I noticed a nail. So my whole day got sidetracked.

The old me probably would have been stressed out and angry all day. Nervous. Anxious. Worried.

The new me held it together pretty well and even thought it was a particularly good day!

Instead of getting upset and viewing the situation through fear, I just tried to think about what steps I needed to take to deal with it. The only real slip-up I had was when I was talking to my mom about it – old habits, old fears and old triggers got the best of me a little bit there, but I was able to stop, think about how everything was knocking on one of my walls, how the situation was okay and I was just interpreting things in a way I didn’t need to, and then I handled it better.

Not only did I not perceive the situation through fear, but I actually perceived it through love! I was more than happy to sit and wait for my car to be worked on while reading Gabrielle Bernstein’s May Cause Miracles. On the way back from the shop, I opened all the windows and felt the unusually warm afternoon breeze all around me. I actually felt really happy.

The tire situation could have been so much worse. I could have gotten a flat in the middle of rush hour traffic. I didn’t even get a flat tire at all! I was able to drive all the way to the shop to get it fixed, and under warranty! Honestly, I really just think about how lucky I was, to have the situation play out the way it did, and I even got to enjoy some of the nice weather!

Isn’t that what this is all about? How you perceive events in your life? Bad things are going to happen; it’s all about how you process them and the meaning you give to those events. I could have been miserable and interpreted everything as out to get me. Instead I noticed the beauty, because I wasn’t so caught up in a world of fear. I saw the bright side! Without even forcing myself to!

I’m pretty excited about what this means. That’s obviously just a small test, but I passed. This is some serious progress. I’m aware of my thoughts and emotions, I consciously guide them to a place of love if they get off-track, and I’m not getting worked up over bad things that happen during my day. Awesome. If things are this good now, I can’t even imagine a month or more from now when I’m even farther along in my journey.

Remember to relax when unexpected problems occur! It may be a lesson! Maybe you need to learn about the situation itself, or maybe you just need to practice processing problems. Let go of the fear, and you will be much more clear-headed to deal with the task before you. Fear is set-up for “fight-or-flight”, but that doesn’t really work in our world today. What would I have done today, just run away from the car? Or fight the car? What would that have accomplished? Absolutely nothing! Fear has no useful purpose there. It is just an event. Just a situation. Do whatever you have to do. Along the way, that’s where you get to spread love. I made a joke with the mechanic. I felt the warm breeze on my drive back from the shop. There’s no reason to be frantic. Deal with every situation as it comes, and don’t worry and stress about what comes next. When it comes, you’ll deal with it in the same way.

Take a deep breath and remember that everything is happening for you to grow.