I think I'll move to Australia

As a child, did you ever read the book "Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?"

Ever have one of those days where you feel like things did not go as you intended? You feel like you had these great plans and intentions, and suddenly they are taken away by someone else. You feel the anger over take you- no one listened to your input or your contributions did not feel valued. Those days always seem to take a hold of you and wrap you in a sour mood. They take your proverbial balance scales of the things you "enjoy doing" versus the things you "have to do" and throw a hundred ton weight on the "have to do" side.`And now lugging around this extra weight makes your bad day all you can think about!

So how do you restore that balance so that you can salvage your day? Do you speak up and let others know how you feel? Do you hit the gym to blow off steam? Do you make a beeline for happy hour? Do you call up your friend or husband or whoever you can get on the phone and just vent?

Well I had one of those days last Friday- (Fridays of all days! It is supposed to be one of the happiest days of the week!!) and I tried to shove that weight off my scales in a variety of ways. I went to my Prenatal Pilates class and tried to put myself into a meditative state- worked like a charm while I was in class (probably because my balance is so off now that if I think of anything other than maintaining it I fall over!) but afterward I immediately went back to feeling agitated. Next I vented to my poor husband who was trapped in the car with me for a three hour drive to Richmond. Venting felt good while I was doing it but again I still felt like I had not been able to get rid of the weight of my bad day.

And that's when I realized what my real options were. First, I could take the weekend to steam for a bit and then eventually become preoccupied with my other activities and just forget about it (at least until Monday). Or my other option is to confront my problem head-on. Yikes! I typically tend to choose the first option because as much as I dislike a bad day, I dislike confrontation even more. However, as I have matured to the ripe old age of 25, I have learned that taking the easy way out and avoiding confrontation as scary as it might be does not make my problem disappear. Instead it just puts a band-aid over it, only to have it ripped off in the same cruel fashion the next time my day takes a turn for the worse.

So I am choosing to confront my source of stress. Of course choosing this path means having an uncomfortable conversation with someone but this is how adults handle their problems, right? I am assuming that this life skill is like all the others, such as paying your own bills, negotiating to buy a car or a house, that the first time it is difficult but it gets easier with time and practice.

My point in all of this is that sometimes you cannot restore balance in you life by just turning to the things on the lighter side of your scale- the things that make you happy and give you a sense of self worth. Instead, you have to face the thing that is making your scale heavy- whether it be work, a bad relationship, poor self-image, whatever it may be- and choose to shed that extra weight.