Frustration???

It's November 26th, and you have set a goal to have three books published by the end of 2013.  You finally are able to get a word processing program for your computer, but find the help menu to be well, less than helpful.  I think if you were a computer wonder like my honey was you could make it work.  Simply put...don't have those skills.

What do you do when frustration and impatience threaten to turn your day to gray?  What is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back in your life.  You know, a camel with a heavy, heavier, heaviest load that finally goes sprawling from one last tiny straw.

I feel as though I'm quite capable of handling the enormous challenges that I'm often handed by life.  I can cope with, face, and handle effectively the very worst that life can give.  Then it's the tiniest thing that pushes me over the edge.  Clean clothes that slide out of my hands to a dirty floor.  My cat's trying to kill each other at night...on top of me!  Trying to publish 3 novels in one year and having every single type of clerical challenge imaginable. 

So back to my question.  How do we cope with not the great big life hardships (death, financial ruin, divorce, child's disability, spouse's disability, etc. etc.) but with things like dropping and breaking a dish that belong to great-granny.  Struggling with a Word Processing program that is NOT user friendly to a 57 year old lady who quit using computers professionally in 1993.

These are my go-to's.  I read something uplifting to my spirit.  I pray.  I focus on my blessings, and remind myself of what they are.  I watch something that makes me laugh...deeply from my belly.  I read a good book.  For me that's one that includes romance, and possibly mystery.  I visit friends or family.

The hardest coping strategy for me is probably to just sit still.  That's right, not moving, not pulling my thoughts into alignment.  Allowing my thoughts to drift, backward, forward, sideways, and seeing where those thoughts will take me.

Writing a blog post is another way that gives me strength.  Venting, talking about the current frustration of my life, suddenly things seem more clear, and I can chuckle a bit at myself (the type of laugh that reminds you that we all are human and make mistakes) and then move forward again.