The joy of sitting still

What an emotional roller-coaster I've been on in the last hour!

I've gone from self-doubt (will I ever be able to do what I want to be doing?) to depression (expensive bad news from my dentist) to calm, to amusement.

At least I had the wisdom to recognize the downward spiral I was on, and try to stop it. I was already in a mood where I felt frustrated and in doubt about my abilities at work, when the dentist office called. Yikes! I can't afford any more dental work. I was ready to tell them to yank 'em. What's the use? I thought. I spend and spend, but it seems never-ending. All the negative scripts came pouring out, and I accepted them all without question, until I was almost in tears.

I've gone down this road many times before, so this time I decided to try to get off, while I still could. I now know myself enough to know that if I can just distract myself for a little while, I can usually stop the bad scripts from running.

Deep breathing & meditation help, so I went over to Canyon Ranch, which has a free "meditation room" with calm instructors guiding you through (Flash high-bandwidth) deep-breathing exercises. In with the good air, out with the bad!

It worked -- not only did I get calmer, I also started thinking about blogging, instead of the dentist.

And now I'm laughing, because it always amuses & amazes me that I'm so easily distracted from doing bad things. This works for chocolate attacks, too. I've saved at least $10.00 this month that I haven't spent at the snack machine by deciding to wait until later instead of getting candy right when the urge hits. Hmm. Less candy = fewer cavities, therefore less candy = more $ in my pocket and less money spent at the dentist.