Someone once told me that she hadn’t seen me in a bad mood. (It was after only four weeks of knowing me, so maybe there’s a sample size problem.)

 

I said that something had annoyed me the week before. Things still bother me, but not for long and not as much. Remembering things I used to know about how I think about, approach, and deal with the world.

 

In fact, as I write this…

 

I realize it’s not even that things bother me — it only bothers me when I’m not sure about my solution or course of action. Everything that is, just is. No being bothered by all of that: it’s not helpful.

I can feel the changes in me when something else is stressing me — that’s what leads to my less, um, constructive reactions to otherwise meaningless things. So, I focus my efforts on dissociating the two: divide and conquer. In fact, I think that recognizing and naming the stress makes it easier