356 I Can Handle Any Problem One Day At A Time December 2017 Friday Week 4

Fantastic Fridays-#356  December 22 The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast I Can Handle Any Problem One Day At A Time In one of my favorite books, How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie there was a story about a minister that I liked. The story was called, “I Learned To Stop Worrying By Watching My Wife Wash Dishes.” He was a minister who had insomnia and stomach pains, and he feared he might have stomach cancer or at least ulcers. He went to a specialist who assured him that he was fine and that his pains were caused by emotional strains. He took care of all the churches needs, preached, looked over the sick and dying in the church, and was the head of many volunteer organizations as well. His plate was overflowing and he added to all that by worrying even more. He felt he could never relax from the load he had put upon himself. So he took the doctor’s advice and took one day off a week and begin to lessen his load of responsibilities little by little. As he was going through old sermons, he decided to crumple up his older notes and throw them in the wastebasket. And that’s when he came to an epiphany to do the same thing to his worries that he could do nothing about. He would crumple up his worries and rid himself of that strain. He felt an immediate load lifted off himself because he purposefully decided to let go.  He also began to notice the small subtle things around him that made people joyful in their daily routines. He saw how his wife would whistle every night while doing the dishes, even after 18 years of marriage and washing them every night. He asked how she could be so carefree about this, and understood that she didn’t try to wash yesterday’s dishes, or the dishes tomorrow, she only washed the day’s dishes in front of her. After he came to the epiphanies of crumpling up his worries and only handling the days load, he no longer had insomnia or stomach pains. So, how is your life like that minister? How much stress are you putting on yourself purposefully? Are you trying to wash all your dishes at one time, or are you focusing on day at a time? The beautiful thing about Dale Carnegie’s book is in an earlier chapter he talks about living in day-tight compartments. The deliberate practice of only living from when you wake up till you go to sleep. We try to over control things and we stress ourselves out and sometimes, if not most times, that stress seeps out into our lives in one way or another. Whether it be a health issue, a mental issue, taking it out on our loved ones, or just the constant tension of feeling trapped. How can you lighten your stress load on yourself? Sometimes it might be taking things off your plate that are overwhelming you, or sometimes it takes having a different mindset about your problems. For me, I know I get stressed when I’m overthinking things. I’m trying to find all the things that could go wrong or have gone wrong before…and that’s all I’m focusing on…instead of thinking about it, planning, and then moving forward with that plan.  It’s easy to get caught in our mind overthinking things without action, and it’s easy to get caught in the physical aspects of trying to do too much. So take a look at both sides of your life, the mental and the physical, and ask yourself if you are trying to do too much…or if you are focusing in a manner that’s keeping you stuck. Life really isn’t as complicated as we make it. We fear that a mistake will be the end of the world, so we try to get it all done in one fell swoop, instead of understanding it’s a process of doing what we can one day at a time. Making mistakes one at a time. learning from them and growing from them…instead of fearing them and trying to avoid them. So again…how can you live in day tight compartments more often, how can you wash only your dishes for the day…and how can you crumple up your worries you can’t do anything about and throw them away from your life? Toda’s Personal Commitment:What are your dishes? What are the worries you haven’t crumpled up that are crippling you? Let’s make this commitment easy today, so… for the next week write down what you want to handle in the day. And then at the end of the night, write down your worries that are no longer serving you onto a small piece of notepaper, and then crumple it up and throw it in the wastebasket before you go to bed. I Can Handle Any Problem One Day At A Time     Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together, Personal Development Life Coach- Chris O'Hearn Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247     Music by: - Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. - I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide