Sometimes, Taking a Breather is the Best Thing to Do...

Lately, I've been feeling light I've been fighting off a lot of anger and frustration - at work, at home, everywhere. Its like I have these extremely high expectations and no one can come close to reaching them. Instead of being understanding, I get frustrated and angry.

A few days ago, I was killing some time before picking up the kiddo at day care and stopped into a store I am in often to try on some new clothes. Usually, the staff is really on the ball and do all the things they've been instructed by team leaders to do - you know, the stuff that usually annoys us? Like making sure they greet you within your first five minutes in the store, by telling you about the deals that week and by starting up a change room for you when they notice more than one item in your arms (I used to work in a few clothing stores in my time, I know the drill). Usually these things annoy me, but I do see the purpose and reasoning behind them, having done them myself many times, and I hear out the sales reps and try not to make them feel uncomfortable in approaching a new customer in their store (which, trust me, can sometimes be a hit or miss thing. You never know what mood a customer is in...). 

I walked into the store and noticed that the staff was in the process of switching their inventory - a whole bunch of new items had come in, so I forgave the fact that no one greeted me when I came in the store. The thing that really started to get my blood boiling was the pile of clothing that soon accumulated in my arms. 

See, I shop in a very specific way. I go through the store once or twice and collect all the items I want to try on. This usually means that my change room has anywhere from two to 30 items in it when I finally get done my sweeps of the store. I figure if I'm going to get out of my clothes, I only want to do it once. Usually the staff is very diligent and once they notice a few items in my arms, they either start a change room going for me or add the clothes to the ever expanding amount of fabric I've picked to try on.

This visit, nothing. I swear I had about ten things in my arms before anyone came by to ask me if I would like them to start me a change room. And then another ten before anyone came back to see if they could add those clothes to the room too.

I know, it's a little thing but it really got me annoyed. Even thought there were a few items I really liked, I said screw it, and left the store without buying anything. I was really annoyed.

The constant nit-picking at work, the lack of understanding really gets to me sometimes too. And at home? It's the same. No one is going out of their way to upset me - in fact I'm sure some people are trying to do the opposite, yet lately I find its easier to get angry at the things that keep happening, over and over, rather than to focus on the good changes that have been taking place.

I need to stop and relax. sometimes, taking a breather is the best thing to do.

I'm sure the ladies at the store were really busy changing their stock. I remember how stressful those days were at the store as you needed to get the new merchandise out quickly. This is the first time since I've been going to that store (and trust me, I got often) that this has happened, so maybe I need to cut them some slack here.

At home, maybe I need to not be so upset when things don't go the way they are planned or how I think they should. I need to roll with the punches more.

Deep breaths. I will reconnect with my inner Zen and it will be awesome.