A Smooth Sea

All too often, when the going gets tough, we quit. Think about it...we live in a society where it is easier to give up than work to do something we want to do. It happens around us every day. How many people are still going to the gym, even though their New Year's resolution was to do just that? We are only 66 days into 2013 and look how many people have already given up.

We give up on relationships and friendships and marriages and losing weight and quitting smoking and reading and watching less television and exercising and volunteering and learning languages and going back to school and cooking more and applying for new jobs and changing careers and saving money and organizing and cleaning and honesty and drinking less and doing more and writing and creating and anything else we claim we want.

Lean into the pain. Embrace frustration and difficulty. Cope with stress. Enjoy the challenge. Just don't quit as soon as the going gets tough. There will still be times you should move beyond whatever you are doing, but the reasons should be more and better than it being tough.

The difficult things are usually the most important in life.

Be Calm In Your Heart

We are constantly surrounded by noise, trouble and hard work, but for many of us, we are rarely at peace. We have a hard time being calm in our heart. We are constantly rushing around, contributing to the noise and chaos. It can become frustrating being enveloped by this chaos, but this frustration only leads further and further away from the peace we desire. Being outwardly calm doesn't always equal being calm in your heart, but it can start you along the path towards peace.

One thing we all need to do is become better at accepting things as they are, especially when we can not change them. This acceptance helps to alleviate the frustrations and dampens the din around us. Part of being calm is knowing there are things of which you have no control and accepting this. We can't change everything about the world around us, but when we realize this, the world around us will change for us. As illogical as this sounds, the way we view the world makes the world what it is for us.

Let go of the frustrations over the things you can't control. Take control over the things you can. When you are able to orchestrate the things you can and feel no frustration towards the things you can't, calmness will begin to find it's way into your heart. As with every great thing we do, this won't be easy and will take time and practice. The more you practice, the easier it will become. 

What Matters

It's been a little while since I have written anything. Two weeks ago, I married an amazing woman and we spent our honeymoon in Cahuita, Costa Rica. Today is the first day back in the "real world" and I wish I could say I was excited, but trading the beautiful beaches and amazing weather in Cahuita for the chilly autumn air in Missouri hasn't been the easiest transition.

While I was away, I realized how much I care about things that really don't matter and I don't spend enough time on the things that do matter. We all get so caught up in the day to day life of jobs and worry and stress that we often forget to slow down and enjoy the life we are living. We get up every morning to go to a job that doesn't matter as much as we think it does, do some work (not nearly as much as we could) and then come home, often sitting in front of the television for hours on end.

While doing this, we constantly worry about things that don't matter or we don't have any control over and we allow little things that happen to frustrate us and ruin our mood. We do this day after day. Why? We convince ourselves it's all about the money we make and need (mostly to buy shit we don't really want or need) or the prestige of having the job title we have (or want) or because the work we do matters or because it's what society expects us to do as adults.

I'm not here to say you have to quit your job and do something else or make massive changes in your life. I'm saying we need to take stock of our lives and stop worrying about things that don't matter. We need to stop worrying about things over which we have no control. We need to stop allowing stupid little things to frustrate us all the time. We need to spend more time doing things that really matter to us...spend quality time with the people we love. Spend less time at work and more time taking a break and recharging the batteries you need to do a good job. Don't worry about having so much stuff...I know it is the way of our society, but do you really need that much?

Take a step back, slow down and figure out what really matters the most to you. Then, figure out how to do it more. This doesn't mean you have to make a massive overhaul to your life...it only means you need to realign your priorities. Our lives don't have to be filled with worries and stress and fears and frustrations. We can make the choice to live a different life. What's stopping you?

Frustration

One thing I think we all constantly struggle with is letting the thoughts and opinions of other people frustrate us. Do you ever have times when it feels as if everyone around you is pointing out all the negatives about the work you do? Do you ever have people who say they want to help you get better but never seem to listen to the reasons why things are the way they are? How do you handle the constant bombardment of negativity? The easiest way to tell if you let other people bother you is to see how often you become frustrated with them.

There will be times when you have a valid reason to be frustrated, but even then, it really isn't worth it. Why become frustrated with someone else when there really isn't anything you can do to change them? There will be times when someone else just doesn't understand, no matter how much they think they do. There will be times when other people just do things differently than we would. There will be times when our best isn't good enough for someone else. There will be times when things just don't work. Becoming frustrated in these cases does no good.

There will be other times when you don't have a valid reason to be frustrated, but become frustrated anyway. There will be times when you let everything else in your life build up and you become frustrated with someone close to you over something stupid. There will be times when you make a mistake that is easily fixed (or even one that isn't easily fixed). There will be times when someone you love makes a simple mistake. There will be lots of times when we want to get frustrated over things that don't really matter, mainly because of other things going on in life. These are times when we really want to eliminate the frustration.

One major problem with frustration is is continues to build. You get frustrated at work because of a variety of things and then traffic sucks and you become more frustrated. When you get home, the stupidest, little thing sets off the frustration again. Maybe it's the way the dishes are in the sink or you left the coffee pot on or you forgot something at work or any number of little things that shouldn't matter. It all starts with becoming frustrated the first time, probably when you feel you have a valid reason to be frustrated and this frustration continue to build to the point where you are getting frustrated over everything.

How do you stop this? How do you develop a way to keep this frustration from getting to you? I'm not an expert as I get frustrated more than I would like, but I do know some things you can try:

• Practice breathing: When you feel like become frustrated, focus on your breathing. Take a deep breath in, hold it, then slowly exhale. Count the breaths you take and focus on nothing but your breathing. This is usually really helpful when you get to the point where you want to explode in frustration. 
• Exercise: Try to get your blood pumping each and every day. Even if it is for just a short period of time, strenuous activity will help to clear your head and put you in a better frame of mind. You can do simple things (jumping jacks, push ups, squats, jumping rope) or more complex things (weights, jogging, yoga, classes). Not only will you burn the energy feeding you frustrations, but the more you work out, the better you will feel about yourself. The better you feel about yourself, the less frustrated you will get. 
• Meditation: This is a difficult one for many people because they picture a monk sitting perfectly still in lotus position for hours on end and think there is no way they can do it. Meditation doesn't have to be that involved. You can meditate by sitting at your desk perfectly still for five minutes. You can focus on your breathing or on a mantra or on anything that helps you clear your mind. You don't have to be classically trained or perfect at anything to meditate. You just have to find what works for you and make the time to do it. 
• Journaling: Make time each day to write about how you feel about things. It helps to get the frustrations you have on paper which makes them real and helps to let them exit your body. This can be your way of letting things out instead of holding them in until you explode over the stupid, little things. 
• Gratitude journaling: This is a lot like journaling, but each day you focus on three things for which you are grateful. You can focus this on things other people did or on things that just happened. You can do this each morning for the previous day or each evening for the day you just had. By focusing on the things for which you are grateful, you can help to forget about the things that frustrate you. As you begin to focus on looking for things to add to this list, you will stop paying as much attention to the things that frustrate you.
• Forgiveness repetition: This is just something you can do for yourself. Many people will do this as they lay in bed getting ready to sleep. Think about the people or things that frustrated you and forgive them. Practicing forgiveness helps to clear away any lingering frustration and helps to make you feel better about everything happening around you.
• Do what makes you happy: This is obvious, but one we often don't do. When we become frustrated, we will often go home and just fall on the couch and watch TV or we bitch and moan to someone else about our frustrations or we drink a little too much or we eat too much or we just go to bed frustrated and angry. Instead, make time to do something you love. If you love to write, then make time to write. Same for listening or making music or reading or playing a sport or shooting pool or doing anything that makes you feel good. We spend so much of our time doing things we may not really want to do and we forget to make time to do the things we love.

These are just some of the things you can do to help alleviate the frustration. The more you do them, the less and less you will automatically get frustrated (hopefully). Some of these may not work for you...the key is to keep trying until you find what does work. Let your loved ones know what you are doing and what you need from them. You don't want your frustration to boil over on to them.

Frustration sucks, but it is something we will all feel from time to time, no matter what we do. Some of us become frustrated at the drop of a hat or have certain people in our lives who are just really good at frustrating us. Some of us will work jobs that are so frustrating that we start to dread them before we even get there. Some of us will get frustrated over things that don't bother anyone else, but we will all have to deal with frustration. How we deal with it will have a lot to do with the overall happiness we feel in life. The easier we frustrate and the more it happens, the less time we have to enjoy the things we love. Personally, I would rather spend my time doing things I love with people I love than feeling frustrated about anything. 

What do you do to help alleviate your frustration?

Relax

For many of us, frustration is a part of our daily lives. We become frustrated when things don't work well, when people don't do what we expect or even for no apparent reason. Frustration will often pop in to our day without warning, but once it hits, we are no longer able to do our best work.

Frustration saps our creativity and our drive to produce. For many, once frustration sets in, we become more and more frustrated. It shows up and we become surly and have a really hard time breaking out of the funk. Once we are in the funk, it becomes nearly impossible to do the work needing to be done until we can get our minds back on track. Frustration only leads to more frustration until we force ourselves to step back, take some deep breathes and relax. 

The problem is most of us become easily frustrated over stupid things and aren't able to easily to get out of the funk. Society has taught us to keep pushing forward, but sometimes the frustration is your body and mind telling you to take a break. We have to step away and break the hold the frustration has on us. This isn't always easy at work because many of our jobs are stuck in the factory mindset. We show up at a certain time, have prescheduled breaks and have to be doing work, come hell or high water, during the scheduled times. Because we aren't able to step away when we need to, instead of learning to eliminate frustration when it hits, we learn to keep doing things when our mind and body scream to stop.

This isn't always a bad thing, but until we learn to eliminate the frustrations as they hit, we are never going to be able to produce our best work. The mindset we have on the job often bleeds into the time we spend outside of work. We become accustomed to being frustrated and we see it around us all the time. The angry people in the store or road rage or neighbors yelling at each other. We feel it too, when the TV goes out during a show or the dogs aren't listening or people are being "stupid" or someone doesn't understand what we need.

We have to get better at listening to what our mind and body are telling us. Frustration shouldn't control who we are and what we do. It's difficult to remind yourself to take a step back once frustration hits, but this is the best thing you can do. Going through life angry and frustrated isn't good for you or anyone around you. The best thing we can do is learn to see the frustration and then learn to relax once it takes hold. Your going to feel better and the work you produce is going to much better. 

Difficult Conversations

In this age of technological innovation, I think most of us have forgotten how to and fear having difficult conversations. We can see this in our professional and personal lives. We resort to text messages and e-mails when we should be having face to face or phone conversations. We find it easier to get everything down in writing because an actual conversation is much harder to do when emotions are involved. This is a prime example of doing something because it is easier, not because it is better.

For many of us, when we think about having a difficult conversation, our stomach drops and our imagination runs wild. We picture the worst happening during the conversation and our fear holds us back from doing what is right. Instead of talking to the person responsible, we may shoot off an e-mail or bitch and moan to a friend or co-worker about what we think is right and what the other person did that is wrong. We don't have the entire story because we are too afraid to discuss it with the other person (or people) involved.

This is a terrible way to treat any relationship. We let things fester and continue to bother us to the point where we can't control our emotions about the situation. We convince ourselves that we are right and work to get other people to think we are too. In most cases, we could have solved the issue with the person involved, but instead have built up so much emotional baggage we can no longer see any other side to the story besides our own. This can cause schisms in teams and will ruin relationships.

A difficult conversation will involve emotions, but the only way to effectively have them is by keeping these emotions in check. We can talk about how something made us feel, but we need to do this from neutral footing. Going on the attack is not helpful and will only make the other person become defensive and more entrenched in their view. Most of the time, there really isn't a "right" or "wrong" solution...there are many shades of gray. We may not have liked what happened, but not liking something doesn't automatically make it wrong.

In any situation we find upsetting, we always assume the other person had the same information we did and chose a different path. While this may be true, often it is not. We owe it to the other person to find out why they did what they did before we jump to judgment. By having a conversation instead of firing off an e-mail, we can get the whole story before making a decision. Being constantly frustrated by others is no way to go through life. Just dealing with it is also no way to go through life. If we constantly ignore the issues instead of speaking to people about them, we allow the frustration to build up until we burst. Yes, many times we need to deal with the fallout from the things that happened, but before becoming frustrated, we owe it to ourselves and other people to get all the facts.

We can't do this via e-mail, at least not easily. Pick up the phone, schedule a meeting, do anything to have the difficult conversation. It won't be easy, but once you start having these conversations instead of letting technology muddle the issue, you will find it becomes easier and easier to have them. Don't let your imagination run rampant and stop feeling as if people are doing things just to spite you. By giving the other person a chance, both can walk away from the conversation with a different perspective and usually a better understanding. It won't always work, but by having the conversation, you have done the best you can do.

As I have found through most of my life, the easiest way to do something is rarely the best.

Adapt to the Situation

Early this morning, I was driving to work to turn off the fire alarm caused by a faulty smoke detector and I was frustrated. At first, I thought I was frustrated with the alarm or the faulty detector or the fact that I was going to work at 3:00am instead of in bed sleeping, but after some thought, I realized I was frustrated because my routine was thrown into disarray.

As I have written before, I am a huge proponent of routines. I believe they help to get more done, be more creative and just make life a little easier to live. A good routine helps us to do more of the things we often put off. The more we get up to exercise in the morning, the easier it becomes. A routine is a little added motivation to help accomplish what we want to accomplish.

I have to get better at not feeling frustration when my routine is knocked around. Things are always going to happen. It may be a fire alarm in the middle of the night or a flat tire or anything else that can come up and change the direction of my day. Getting frustrated when this happens does no good and won’t change things. I must get better at allowing these swerves to happen without being affected.

Allowing ourselves to roll with the punches will open us up to more experiences and ideas. When we aren’t in our routine and okay with whatever happens, we never know what opportunities will cross our paths. While a routine may help us to get things accomplished, sometimes stepping out of the routine will lead us in a new and exciting direction we never saw coming Other times, it will just be a trip to work for a couple of hours, a little less sleep, a later than usual Friday blog and a change in routine. It’s not always going to be easy or fun, but getting frustrated isn’t going to change anything. When we are open to and accepting of the changes, how much more can we learn, enjoy or do?

What opportunities will we miss if we are blinded by frustration?

"You can avoid having ulcers by adapting to the situation: If you fall in the mud puddle, check your pockets for fish."  

Routines

I like change...when I am controlling the change. I like to shake things up and try new things. This is probably why I was a bit of a nomad when I was younger. New places and new ideas always excite me. I get bored when I have to do the same things over and over and over again, which is why looking at my resume, I have been a bit of a job hopper. I have bounced around trying to find something that sets my soul on fire and I will keep hopping around until I do. Change is interesting. Change keeps things fresh and new and forces you to learn something new.

Even while liking change, I have found I also like routines. These aren't mutually exclusive ideas. We have the ability to make changes in our lives where we want. We also have change forced upon us from outside forces and we can either roll with it or fight against it. For me, I try to embrace this change while keeping a routine for the things I don't want to change. When I fall out of this routine, I have found life to be a little more difficult. I find myself being short with people (including the lovely Leila), becoming frustrated way too easily, having a harder time being positive and just having less fun with life.

These routines are not ways to plan out each and every day, but are the things I do that allow me to remain focused and be me. We all have things we should do for ourselves, exercise, yoga, meditation, write, etc. These are all things that allow us to release energy, both positive and negative, and allow us to be more focused in our daily lives. By building these as part of a routine during the day, we are much more likely to actually do them. This is why I get up earlier than I need to write each day. We often say we don't have enough time to do the things we need to do or want to do, but if we look closely at what we spend time doing, we can find ways to do anything. We just have to build in routines.

From time to time, we are not going to be able to follow our routine. Something is going to happen that isn't going to allow it. This is okay. But, if we start to get lazy and really not follow the routine we have developed, we can start to lose the good that comes from it. This is when I start being short with people and become easily frustrated. I lose focus and I am only able to really get it back when I reestablish my routine and have a release valve for the energy that builds up and causes me to lose my patience. We all need to be able to release this energy in a constructive way and building routines is the best way to do it.

Mountains out of Molehills

Many times, we allow ourselves to make things bigger than they really are. Yes, we are going to do things that suck. Yes, things are going to happen that make life much more difficult while we fix them. Yes, things are going to go wrong. Yes, things are going to be difficult. Yes, things are not always going to be rainbows and unicorns.

But, if we take a second to pause and breath deeply, can we honestly look at anything happening and say this is really the end of the world? Are things ever as bad as we make them out to be? Instead of complaining or floundering or dreading or fearing or worrying or thinking about how hard something is, what if we just rolled up our sleeves and got to work? What would happen if we just went about fixing things that needed to be fixed, without throwing in all the above fear and loathing?

I'm not saying that we shouldn't feel the emotions we feel when everything explodes in our face, but if we acknowledge them and then get to work, our lives will become a lot easier. Five years from now, these problems, the ones that are so horrible now, are going to be nothing more than a small blip on our timeline. When we let things get to us, we aren't able to do our best work and we spend more time complaining when we should be creating. No one does their best work when they are frustrated or angry or upset or afraid.

Things are really never as bad as we make them out to be. Figure out what needs to be done and do it. Leave the emotions out of it until it is time to celebrate. People love to say "everything happens for a reason." I don't know if this this true, but believing it does make the bad things seem a lot more manageable.

Roll With the Punches

Life is all about rolling with the punches.

We can have the best plans laid out when something unthinkable happens and we have to change them. This happens nearly every day for most of us because there are always going to be things happening that we didn't expect or couldn't even imagine. Some of us become frustrated or angry when things aren't happening the way we plan. Others don't allow these unexpected occurrences to ruin their day and instead, they take them in stride.

The more important something is to us, the more likely we will get frustrated or angry if it doesn't work the way we planned. This is the time we really need to focus on rolling with the punches and figuring out how to do it in spite of the roadblock or changing it to follow the new path laid in front of us. Becoming angry or frustrated may be our first gut reaction, but neither of these brings anything good to the situation. Frustration doesn't help solve problems. Becoming angry won't change the way things are. We are not capable of thinking clearly when we are frustrated or angry. Let go and just keep on moving.

The most positive people around us are the ones who know how to take things in stride and keep on moving. They don't like what happens all the time, but they know they can't change things by being angry or frustrated. They know what they want and keep moving forward no matter what happens. What they want will change over time based on what happens and they don't stick with their old goals when new goals present themselves. Because they are not allowing frustration and anger to take over their lives and minds, they are more likely to see the doors opening when other close.

The next time you start to become angry or frustrated with something that happens, stop and ask yourself if those feelings are helping you in any way. When you realize they are not, slow down and figure out the new direction to go. This won't always be easy and you are never going to be perfect. You will become better at it and it will begin to become instinctual. A happier and more productive life is waiting...

Support Each Other

There are people who know exactly what they want to do and they do it. They find a career they love and continue pushing towards their goal of what they want to do. Then, there are people who aren't really sure. They think they want to do something and go for it, but once they are doing it, they realize it isn't really what they want to do.

It's okay to not know and to experiment. You will often frustrate the people who do know what they want to do because they can't grasp the idea that you do not. Don't let their frustration get to you. Keep moving forward and figuring out what you want to do and where you want to go. For you, passion has to be found. Keep searching and you will find what you are looking for. But, you have to keep searching.

If you are the type of person who gets frustrated at those of us searching, just relax. We would love to be in your shoes, but we don't think the same way you do. We would love to do something that makes us excited to jump out of bed in the morning. Constantly searching, we may talk about how things will be better when we do something else. If we get there, we may find out it isn't what we thought it was going to be or it doesn't do to our soul what we wanted it to. This may frustrate the person who knows exactly what they want, but it doesn't compare to the frustration of the person who feels unfulfilled.

If you know exactly what you want to do and you go for it, great! If you don't have a clue, but know you are going to constantly search and mold what you have, great (and good luck)! Both of these types of people need to support each other and cut the other a little slack. We're all in this together and we have to remember we each have our own thoughts and motivations. The more we help and support each other, the better off we will be.

Frustration

I woke up this morning frustrated with the world. I was frustrated with the attitudes of people I know. I was frustrated by seemingly unreachable goals. I was frustrated with work and even thinking about it was making me even more frustrated. I was frustrated with the day and I had only been awake for ten minutes.

So, I sat down to write out my frustrations and see if I could work through some of the thoughts. Slowly, I began to realize all the frustration I was feeling and directing at outside influences was actually frustration with myself. This frustration was caused by expectations I have placed on my own work, expectations I didn't feel I was living up to.

We all have goals and dreams, but we also place other markers on ourselves without knowing we are doing it. Holding ourselves to a much higher standard than others do, we have a hard time, if not an impossible time, meeting these expectations. We expect perfection and we will never be able get there.

In some people, this can be a driving force for good, but in most of us, this leads to the morning I had. When you aren't living up to the expectations you have secretly placed on yourself, you lash out in frustration at the people around you. You convince yourself they aren't trying hard enough or doing a good enough job or getting things done as quickly as you would like. In reality, you aren't doing a good enough job, trying hard enough or getting things done as quickly as you would like, at least in your own mind.

Cut yourself a little slack. You are never going to be perfect. Train your mind to expect your best work, nothing more, nothing less. Realize when your outward frustration is really based on your inward feelings. This frustration isn't good for you and it isn't good for the people unfortunately caught in the fire. They don't deserve your wrath and you don't deserve it either.

Know What You're Chasing

When we become frustrated or disillusioned, too many of us hope some change will drop from the sky and fall into our lap. We bitch and moan about how we aren't happy with what we are doing or wish we could do more. Most of us never move past the bitching and moaning stage and spend our lives trying to deal with the disappointment.

Change is never going to fall from the sky and land in our laps. Things will never magically get better if we don't do something about it. If you want a change, make a change. This doesn't always mean quit; this may mean make the changes you want to see. Sometimes, we do have to quit and search for something better, something that matters to us.

Many times, though, we have to take what we are doing and make it better. We have to make the changes we want to see. We have to turn what we are doing into something magical for us. This isn't easy, but people do this each and every day. These people are no better than you and me, they just know bitching and moaning does nothing to make things better. Figure out what needs to change and change it. Look within and find the happiness and do it. Most of us are doing what we, at one time, enjoyed doing. Before running away, look to see what you can change to bring back the old feelings.

If you find it, great! If not, then start searching for something else to make you happy. Look inside first. Quit second. We can't spend our lives chasing something if we don't know what that something is.

Positivity Breeds Positivity

In this hectic world, it is very easy to become frustrated and negative very quickly each day. One thing can go wrong (the alarm doesn't go off, you're running late, the car doesn't start) and this throws us in to a tailspin of negative thoughts and frustration. This happens to everyone and once we are in this negative mindset, it can be really hard to pull ourselves out. Negativity breeds negativity. Once our mind is focused on the negative, we see it everywhere. One simple occurrence in the morning can ruin our entire day.

I have found a way to combat this and it sometimes works really well. When I start to get frustrated with something happening, I pause, take a few deep breaths, close my eyes and imagine something good. I think about my fiancee or my family or something funny that happened the day before. I try to pull myself out of the funk before it grabs hold. The interesting thing I have learned is positivity breeds positivity, too. If I can catch it soon enough or if I can focus on something positive each morning, I have better days. When I don't, I tend to have negative days. By knowing this, I can work towards having more good days than bad. As with everything we do, it takes work.

Frustration

Many of us spend way too much of our time being frustrated by things we have little to no control over. We get frustrated by traffic; we get frustrated by things people say or do; we get frustrated by the things people do not say or do; we get frustrated when our order in a restaurant is wrong; we get frustrated with the weather; we get frustrated when the cable goes out; we get frustrated when electronics aren't working properly. We spend so much time being frustrated over little things and let these frustrations ruin our day.

Every day, something we don't want to happen is going to happen. We have to learn to ignore these little things or fix them without getting frustrated when they happen. We have to start looking for the good instead of dwelling on the bad. The key is to learn to not only let go of these frustrations, but to learn how to keep them from frustrating us at all. We have to find a different mindset, one where we focus on the good things happening and not on the bad. We have to relax and realize most of our frustrations stem from circumstances out of our control. We have to let go and let whatever happens happens. If it is good, celebrate. If is is bad, figure out how to fix it (if we can) and continue moving forward.

Frustration brings little good to our lives and easily compounds. Once we allow something to become frustrating, we begin to notice more and more things which frustrate us. Instead, early in every day, find something going well and think about how good we feel knowing this. As we get better noticing the good, we will start to see these good things compounding more and more and we will begin to feel less frustration for the others. Finding the good isn't always as easy because we have to focus our minds to notice the good and resist the urge to focus on the bad. Our days will never be perfect, but the people who have more good days than bad do this by focusing more on the good. Lots of little things happen throughout our days, isn't it better to spend our time focusing on and celebrating the good? With less frustration, how much more can we accomplish each and every day?

Stress and Frustration

Most of us walk though life with so much stress and frustration bottled up that we suffer from it. We are stressed about work and relationships and money and feel frustrated things aren't going the way we want or we aren't doing what we think we should or we just can't seem to get ahead. These are all normal feelings and we aren't alone with these stressors or frustrations. But, we have to find ways to let go of these feelings; we have to find positive outlets to help get rid of them.

Some people use exercise. Some use writing. Some meditate. Some practice yoga. It doesn't matter what you do, you just need to find whatever works for you. Life is too short to carry around all this negative energy bottled up, just waiting to explode. We have to let it go. If we find a release, we will realize most of the frustration and stress are caused by things that shouldn't cause is so much frustration or stress. We will realize things happen every day and the less we let them bother us, the better off we will be.

Start today. The great thing about having the release is you will notice the little things will stop bothering you so much. With less negativity on board, it's easier to ignore the little things; it's easier to focus on big pictures; it's easier to go through life being a little happier and more peaceful. When you don't have a release, the opposite is true. Little things add up and we become frustrated over things we shouldn't. We lose it over things which normally we wouldn't. We all have a way to release the negative, we just have to find what works best. What works for me won't necessarily work for you. Try it...find your release and see how much easier it becomes to not bottle up negativity. Think about how much better your life would be if you weren't carrying the weight of all of these negative emotions with you through each day. Think about how much happier you can be if the little things didn't bother you so much.

What do you do to release and let go of negativity?