Enjoying the Ride

I’ve shared some of my Notes from the Universe with you before. (You can see them here and here.) Since I am such a huge fan of these daily inspirations, I of course follow their author, Mike Dooley on Facebook. So when the notes aren’t enough, I find more wisdom on his Facebook wall. He posted something a few days ago that still has me thinking.

At times, life moves slowly. Yet if it happened any faster you'd already have everything you ever wanted without learning to enjoy the ride. -Mike Dooley

I do an excellent job living in the present. I don’t get hung up on my past and I don’t stress about the future too much. However, one weakness I’ve had lately is letting my current and present stress get out of control. I’ve had a string of bad luck recently that is putting a dent in my wallet. Car trouble, landlord/apartment issues, medical expenses, etc. I tend to let these things spiral out of control and really bum me out. When there are big stresses hanging over my head, the normal daily stress of work, lack of sleep, needing to clean, etc... all get 10 times worse!

After a month or so of being a Debbie Downer, I finally decided to take small steps to tackle each problem. I got a second opinion about my car, which worked in my favor. I talked to my landlord and told him to take care of the problems in our apartment (or else!)…he’s getting work done. I’ve started to pay the small bills and I’m working out payment plans for the larger ones. It’s hard for me to handle stress when so much comes in at once. But I know if everything was perfect now, I’d have nothing to work towards. Life really is all about enjoying the ride…the ups and downs. Afterall, who wants to ride a rollercoaster that doesn’t have any hills?

How do you handle stress? If you have any coping tips, I’d love to hear them! (you can leave a comment below).


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