Okay, so I came across this phrase, “things going beyond your control,” and it really got me thinking. I mean, how often do we actually try to wrestle with stuff that’s just…out of our hands? I decided to spend a day really paying attention to this and seeing what I could learn.
I started by listing out all the things I typically stress about. You know, the usual suspects:
- Traffic on my way to work.
- What other people think of me.
- Whether my favorite coffee shop is going to run out of oat milk.
- The weather (classic, right?).
- Emails,endless Emails.
Just writing them down made me feel a little silly. Like, I’m actively expending energy worrying about the weather? Come on.
The Experiment Begins
So, the experiment: for one whole day, I’d try to actively not stress about these things. Every time I felt that familiar knot of anxiety tightening, I’d take a deep breath and remind myself, “This is beyond my control.”
It was…harder than I thought. My morning commute was a perfect example. There was a HUGE backup, and my initial reaction was to get frustrated, start gripping the steering wheel, and muttering some swear words. But then I remembered the experiment. I took that deep breath, and thought, “Okay, I’m stuck. Yelling at the other cars won’t help. What can I control?”
I put on a podcast I’d been meaning to listen to. I focused on my breathing. I practiced some mindfulness exercises that are not so easy in a traffic jam. And you know what? It didn’t make the traffic go away, but it did make the experience way less stressful.
The coffee shop scenario played out, too. They were, in fact, out of oat milk. My inner drama queen wanted to throw a fit, but I just smiled at the barista and said, “No worries, I’ll try something else.” And I discovered a new drink I actually liked better!
Email Mountain.
It is the biggest thing that I can’t easily deal with. I tried to use some methods like Inbox Zero and others. But It can’t be easily “beyond my control”, I did a lot to try to get rid of them.
The Takeaway.
By the end of the day, I felt…lighter. I realized how much energy I usually waste on things I can’t change. It’s not that I suddenly became a Zen master, but I definitely shifted my perspective. I learned that while I can’t control external events, I can control my reaction to them.
It’s an ongoing process, of course. I’m not going to magically stop worrying about everything. But this one-day experiment was a great reminder that sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do is simply let go.