Four ways to flush out frustration

The cure for anything is salt water:
sweat, tears or the sea. ~ Isak Dinesen

Many of my posts are written as reminders: I am good enough, strong enough, life is a journey, blah blah blah. Do I believe any of it? Yes. Do I ascribe to any of it? Sometimes. But let’s face it: I am not sparkly 24/7. I feel frustration, anger, disappointment, rejection. I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, forget to wear my crown, try to do it all and fail. I even manifest expectations onto my friends: Bam, it’s your fault I’m frustrated. Instead of allowing frustration to suck our lifeblood, however, flush it out. 1) Accept reality: if we can’t change it, then either live with it or be the change we wish to see. 2) Shift focus: involve ourselves in our favorite work, pastime, etc. 3) Exercise: exorcise those demons with sweat, tears (or the sea). 4) Journal it and/or talk it out.

What’s your remedy for frustration?

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Home away from home

[Image credit: Simon Howden]

Wherever we spend significant time outside of our own residences becomes our home away from home.  It may be our place of employment and/or a pastime we enjoy, such as cycling on the open road or fishing on a favorite lake.  In addition to the office, the Yoga studio has become my second home where I typically spend up to 10 hours per week.  The other day I realized how comfortable I feel with the yogi/nis I share my time with — talking about our constitutionals, skin issues, relationships and various other topics commonly bantered about between close friends and family.  It’s a rare treat to find others who are not much different than I am — some with a similar sense of humor and others with the same insecurities.  And even more of us who are quirky in our own ways.  Rather than judgment, I feel a sense of acceptance.  I consider myself lucky to call the hot room my home away from home.

Where is your second home?

Time heals

[Image credit: cbenjasuwan]

Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.
~ Hippocrates

Personally, I believe that time provides a buffer, a safeguard or defense, to help prevent the heart from breaking into a thousand little pieces each time we experience some sort of loss in our lives.  And many of us also undergo the seven steps of grief which, of course, affect everyone differently.  Speaking for myself, I think it would be nice to remove the middle-man of time and speed up the entire healing process.  Maybe it’s possible to help it along by heeding Hippocrates’ words and providing the opportunity — filling our waking hours with our favorite pastime, a new passion and/or the company of friends or family — in order to make the step-by-step transition easier.  Eventually we may get to that place where the wounds become less visible, perhaps leaving only a few battle scars on the surface of our hearts.  I’ll let you know how that goes for me … in time.

Have you given yourself the opportunity for healing?