It's a Matter of Perspective

Today I was driving out of the parking lot of my local library when a lady pulled out in front of me and then gave me an indignant look like I was the one doing something wrong. I simply smiled because you see I have found out that it is in fact a matter of perspective.
In that moment it did not matter who was right or wrong, well maybe not to me, but it certainly did to her. Now, I could have laid on the horn, gave a gesture and yelled but what would that have accomplished really? Some of you will say it would have made me feel better! But would it have, really? When we allow someone to get us so upset that we feel that we have to retaliate it really does us way more harm than good.

Physically it raises our blood pressure, stress level and brain activity by releasing the hormones that cause our flight or fight syndrome, none of which are good for us. Emotionally it causes all kinds of possibly harmful feelings, like hate and anger, which in the long run does not make us, feel very good and can cause us to not think clearly and possibly cause an accident ourselves.
No, I choose to smile and move on and not just for the reasons I stated above. I try to live my life in such a way that 1.) I only concern myself with things that I can directly control and 2.) I try to look at things from the other persons’ perspective.

1.I only concern myself with things that I can directly control!

With that in mind since I do not control 90% of what happens to me I do not worry about most things, in fact, I do not worry anyway. I definitely give that 10% my attention but in a positive, what can I do to affect this manner, mostly with a clear head and thoughts so that I can come up with a rational solution.

Now, the only thing I control about the other 90% is how am I going to react to what just happened. Of course I have two choices; I can react either positively or negatively. I choose positively as often as I can because I like peace and harmony. Don’t you? Mentally, emotionally and physically those are the better places to be and spiritually it lifts me up! I like that!

2.I try to look at things from the other persons’ perspective.

Even though I really may not know exactly what’s going on in that persons’ life at that particular moment, I try to at least say to myself, hey, they may be having a bad day, got some bad news, are late for an appointment, etc. And even if they just are the type of person who is ticked off most of the time that can only have an effect on me if I allow it too. In fact in most situations where someone else is being what I might consider rude or inconsiderate, I just try and smile for two reasons.

First of all, I feel better (You can call that selfish, I call it maintaining my health!) and secondly, maybe just maybe I may help them to relax and brighten their day. You see if I give into their negativity, it will certainly grow because I am feeding it. But, if I throw something positive at that negativity, I may just diffuse it or at least lessen it some.

I can really sum this up by repeating a wonderfu saying I saw on a t-shirt today, “I am too blessed to be stressed!”