Nancy, my wife is probably one of the only people that I know that have accepted the complex nature of what goes on in my head. But forget trying to figuring it out; I can't even do that. For instance: This morning while monitoring my Facebook feed a friend of mine had a post saying "Thinking calm thoughts." What this told me was that something had frustrated my friend. I do not know what it was or even if that was the case, but that was what I was going with.
What happens when something frustrates us? It has been my experience that in a short amount of time I am totally consumed with what is frustrating me. As the frustration grown all sorts of scenarios develop: People are severely injured, if not really severely injured, things blow up, my inner Rambo comes out and takes care of the situation, a thermo-nuclear device cleans house.
AHH, yes, problem solved, thoughts are calm again. Yeah, right! To get real for a minute, the only way I have found to deal with something that is frustrating is to deal with something that is frustrating me. How do you do that? Have a Lalapalooza Moment. Stop focusing on what is so frustrating and spell lalapalooza backwards in your head. Well that doesn't really take care of the frustration, but it will distract you long enough to catch your breath. The source of the frustration may still be there and you may not have found a solution, but hey, you have spelled lalapalooza backwards in your head. How many people can truly say that they have accomplished that? Not many, you over achiever you.
By the way, I need to go on record and say that I am not against thinking calm thoughts.
