Tight Leather Pants On A Hot Summer Day.

You know when someone cuts you off in traffic?

Or doesn’t say thank you when you hold the door for them?

Or you say good morning and they look at you blankly and ignore you?

How does that feel? Did you just instantly get annoyed and think “ugh I hate it when that happens! Those people suck!” 

Let’s switch gears.

How about those times you need to switch lanes and someone lets you in seamlessly. 

Or how about when you’re at a toll and the car in front of you paid for you?

Or at the drive through and someone bought your order?

Did a feeling of warmth just come over you reading that? When that happens do you instantly want to pay it forward and do the same thing for someone else? (If not, that’s another post, for another day).

On a sweltering hot day in the middle of summer where I can’t stop sweating, I use this trick where I imagine myself in a crowded subway in the same heat wearing tight black leather pants and a very heavy wool sweater (I don’t own this outfit and it’s my game, so indulge me). I mentally put myself in that situation for ten seconds. Then I come back to reality where I’m not in that crowded subway wearing tight black leather and wool and instantly feel better. 

Practicing mind games with yourself is just that – a practice. Some days are harder to get your mindset into a more positive space, but the more you practice, the better you get at it. 

My life changed when I started doing this. I was at my rock bottom and I needed to get myself out of a really dark time so I started small and focusing on more pleasant things. I shifted to what I was grateful for rather than the not so great stuff happening in my life at the time. 

I used the exercise in the beginning of this post to exhibit how easy it is to shift gears mentally by putting yourself in that space – even for just ten seconds. It’s all energy. You can take negative energy and continue with that gross feeling throughout the day and take it out on the next innocent person you come across – snapping at them for no reason they are aware of – and thus potentially ruining THAT person’s day.

 Or. You can just cut it off then and there. 

We all know there are just some things in our lives you can’t control. I’ve learned this the hard way – being a self-proclaimed control freak – what you CAN control, is the way you respond. That person who didn’t say thank you when you held the door (truth be told, there are still some days I say loudly, “YOU’RE WELCOME!!!”), it feels better to keep holding doors for people and engulfing yourself in positive energy and tell yourself:

“That person probably just got cut off in traffic.”