Actions & Reactions

Life isn't always good and life isn't always bad.  However, it's how you react to each circumstance that defines you.

Let's pretend that you go to the grocery store and buy fresh fruit for a scrumptious dessert you plan to make for a party tonight.  By the time you make it home from the store, you get out your ingredients and find that the fruit you just bought has mold and there's not enough time to go back to the store and get more.  How do you react?

Now, I would say this is a lesser big deal than other things that could go wrong but it can still be stressful.  There are a variety of ways you can react but let's just name a few:

1. Sit on the floor and cry because your whole day hasn't gone right
2. Storm back to the store and take out all your frustrations on the person helping you with the return
3. Stop at the store on your way to the party and pick up a dessert (at least you brought something)
4. Rant on facebook about how terrible this store is for selling you moldy fruit one time
(never mind you have been shopping there for years)
5. Change your plan for the dessert and use ingredients you already have

None of these reactions are wrong.  We are all human and we can make our own decisions.  If it were me, I would probably do #1 and #3 or #5.  How would you react?  Maybe it's not a baking problem you are having in your life, maybe it's a child throwing countless temper-tamtrums.  Maybe it's a bad grade on a test you studied really hard for.  Maybe your car broke down after just getting it serviced.  Whatever the case, how you react is so much more important than the problem itself.

I'm an emotional human being.  I typically break down crying at the smallest things.  It sucks and it's not my favorite part of myself.  When I react badly, I end up having a terrible day no matter what.  If I react well, the day will typically take a turn for the better.  Here's an example:

Last week, the morning just started off terrible.  I have a teething baby so she's constantly fussy because she's hurting and at this point in the day, she would't take a nap.  I was so frustrated and felt so alone.  Nothing was helping her.  After finally getting her to nap, I took a minute to myself and just breathed.  It was going to be okay.  But then there was a loud noise and she was up again.  So much for my break. By just breathing though I was able to be calm and soothe her back to sleep again.  I then took a nap too.

I reacted well and it turned out well.  Instead of crying like I normally would have taking a deep breath really helped.  Thank goodness!  What is a situation in your life that if you had reacted bad, it would have turned out way worse than it already had?