We all have moments of wanting to escape to somewhere else, in hopes of finding tranquility, but lose the battle in finding peace. Some however have found peace even during difficult times. How does one deal with their own stress? How does one deflect the misery of another?

When we have a ’bad day’ three options present:

1) stay miserable, continuing to attract more anger;

2) ignore the stressors in hopes that it will pass, potentially attracting more anger;

3) walk away, centering the self in breathing. Sounds pretty easy, but for many it is not while conditioned to remain in misery…this is their reality.

Do we have to stay in our own reality of self-inflicted misery?  What about others who create misery for us? Whether it is self-inflicted or brought on by another’s actions, we can change our response. For the self-inflicted pain we have option two or three, with the preferred method being number three. Stress implemented by actions of another can be more difficult to handle, as we are often in disbelief of their thoughtless actions…Really?!

One day, an angry person, creating friction when he speaks, quickly changed the tone of our day. From happy and joyful, to painful and miserable. All staff members were affected by this mans actions and all wanted nothing to do with him. Knowing that he was hurting, while dealing with his Cancer diagnosis, something had to be done.

With a preconceived notion of ignoring the person on the next day, he came to me and apologized. In this case I chose option two and briefly ignored him, in hopes that it will pass…phew! I was thankful to have not spoken about his actions, as he came to a realization on his own…offering an apology. Next time I will be better at dealing with another person’s anger. Lesson learned! What if he had not apologized? By my ignoring him further, this would only create more tension between us. By not apologizing to me, two options then present: let it go or tell him how I felt. Thankfully he apologized and we didn’t have to cross that road.

The gentleman was ’tired’ of going through Radiation Treatments. As many patients experience fear of their last treatments and the unknown, they express fear in their own way. His was through anger.

Remaining calm and instilling peace as a common ground, I established a new reality for him. His guilt came back to haunt him. With his own self-guilt, he apologized for his behavior. Again I say…whew!

How do you handle difficult people? Is it proper to return the anger? Returning anger only creates more anger. We are not defined by our actions, but defined by how we deal with others during difficult times. These are opportunities to shine brighter than ever before!

While the Pilgrim takes things personally reacting from anger, only finding more anger. The Warrior allows others to express their emotions without absorption of anger, remaining in harmony with himself and the collective whole.~Ani Po

Stepping into the canvas identifying many colors of the rainbow, we have the ability to avoid misery brought out by a storm. Remaining calm we find ourselves instinctively wanting to dance in the rain

Learning to Laugh

In a world of deadlines, expectations, and increased responsibilities, we find it more difficult to find humor in our daily lives. This is the story for many, not for all, daily routines with added stress. This past week the teacher became the student.

Often times the universe will throw signs our way, in hopes of us taking time to lighten up. Learning this first hand, I realize victim mentality only adds more stress of daily living. With added stress at work, my responsibilities increasing, and needs of my children being first priority, the universe sends opportunities to identify things weighing me down…I must let go of the anger and misery of others.

Not until something so innocent happened, did internal restructuring to take place. My personal inventory became clear when a close friend reminded me for three days, ”life is a playground and we are to play whenever possible.” I will admit that at first I ignored the signs, as most humans do, until a recent post brought the attention to my actions.

With a recent post to another friend, who needed prayers sent for immediate healing in his life, the humor found itself back into my life. Instead of posting ”sending healing thoughts your way,” my auto-fill replaced ’thoughts’ with ’tights.’ Nothing like sending some ”healing tights your way.” The humor became evident with other responses, ”I’ll take control top,” ”everyone needs a good pair of tights, please send me a pair,” or my favorite ”I am going to a class reunion this weekend and need a good pair of suck me ups immediately.” I hope that all found humor in it and humor found its way into their busy days, relaxing them but for a moment.

Sometimes the best medicine is learning to laugh at oneself.~Ani Po

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with work? Life? Do you ever feel hopeless and not sure of what to do? What I found worked…sending an accidental message, taking on a whole other meaning…bringing humor to our day. Dare to be spontaneous! Dare to make an accidental message and allowing it to play through.

It is crucial in our busy days to find time to laugh. Life is truly too short to do anything other and in my everyday work I am reminded of this. Being a Radiation Therapist, I witness many opportunities of growth in this area. Everyday someone is dying, but it doesn’t have to be us. We can choose to live or we can choose to fall victim to our daily lives.

”Fall nine times, get up ten.” Japanese Proverb

Stepping into the Canvas today, find time to laugh. With father time keeping track of our numbered days we may not see tomorrow.  Would we rather finish our last day on a low note or would we rather finish it on a high?  Try a little laughter today…it is just what the Doctor ordered…