I like it when bad days end not so bad.

Since I'll be leaving my job here pretty soon, I've been trying to take advantage of my nice benefits and the perks of working for a world-renowned university. One of the things offered for employees under the Student Affairs division are staff development workshops. I get occasional emails about them.

A few weeks ago, I signed up for one on Stress Management facilitated by some of the counselors at the Staff & Faculty Counseling Center (another place I need to hit up, and I do need it).

The workshop itself was okay. I think I expected more, but I got some really great things out of it. One thing was a "mindfulness exercise." It's pretty much just stopping to enjoy things rather than rushing through them. We did this with something as simple as eating a grape. It's very relaxing. The other one was closing your eyes and envisioning the spectrum go from red to violet in your head. You have to spend about 30 seconds on each color, but it's also enough to calm you.

The women also had us list all our stressors prior to the 10 am meeting. I had a bunch. We discussed what we did about them and if it helped at all. A little bit later we listed the things that made us happy that morning. Sometimes, you just need to give thanks and put things in perspective.

Finally, we wrote down three sayings to ourselves. One related to work, the second related to personal life, and the last for whatever. Mine were:

Your mind is stronger than you think.
[Work; I have no reason to doubt my ability to get past something by using my mind. This was inspired by the director of the CPO, the infamous Tim N.]

Get over yourself.
[Personal; sometimes I just need to get over my bloated ego... it gets in the way too much]

Just breathe...
[Random; if I'm breathing and have a pulse, it can't be that bad.]

I told myself each of these yesterday, tried to be mindful while driving, and said a Serenity Prayer. They worked. Oh yeah, and I have some very good friends - far and near - to be thankful for as well.

Me siento: okay
Escuchando: silencio

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