Ever have a less than ideal day at work? No matter how hard you tried to accentuate the positive, you wound up feeling, well… kinda negative? Tell me about it, sister. Yesterday, I was feeling great – riding the wave of life and hanging ten. Until I wasn’t. Suddenly, a conversation with someone who was angry threw me off my surfboard, and I crashed into the waves.
I tried to get back on my board, but I couldn’t seem to pull myself up.
People who work in call centres deal with this kind of thing every day. Some folks are just plain angry. They bulldoze and bulldoze until they get what they want… and they’re not very nice about it in the process.
So what’s a girl to do?
According to Robert Holden, the author of “Shift Happens” and creator of “The Happiness Project”, it’s a no brainer. His work in psychology and healing, he says, has taught him that mental health is the capacity to choose your thoughts.
It’s the difference, he says, between pain and freedom.
You can let your run-in with that angry person ruin your whole day or just a few minutes of it. The choice is always yours: Pain or freedom?
Such a simple question. Such a simple answer.
Who knew it could be that easy?
Suddenly, I feel like I’m back on my board again. 😀
