What to Do When Chaos Strikes

Sometimes, well, let’s face it, a lot of the time, things don’t go according to our master plan. It could be our plan for the day, for our long-awaited vacation, or simply in the parking lot looking for a place to park.

When things go wrong we have 2 basic choices:

Be calm or get upset.

We can laugh or cry.

We can see it as an interruption in our life or as something that was supposed to be in our life at that exact moment for reasons we may or may not know now or ever. The reason is not important. Let’s take a look at why the calm reaction is a good habit to form and how to do it.

Choosing Calm When Chaos Strikes

When we choose a calm reaction, what is important in the confident choice to TRUST that the universe has our back, that “all-that-is” is conspiring towards our highest good even if it seems like we’re on a bumpy back road in the middle of wild storm on a cold dark night. We trust and know that we will get to our destination and it will be good!

Everytime we choose to be calm during a calamity, whether gigantic or mildly inconvenient, we experience a multitude of good things. You prevent all the bio-chemicals that come along with the stress reaction. When you choose calm, you will likely notice that your body/mind breathes a sigh of relief that says something like, “Oh, thank goodness we don’t have to get upset and feel mad and horrible inside.”

Your circumstances are the same, but you can be calm, even happy. You may have clean-up work to do. You may have a situation that you don’t want, but being calm or happy is a choice that you ARE allowed to make.

When you choose calm and/or happy you experience the bio-chemicals of the relaxation response which allows your body to do it’s maintenance work, it’s digestive work, immune-system work, and so on. And you are able to feel good.

We’ve been programmed from an early age to get mad, maybe even really mad, when things go wrong. But, you are the boss of you! You can change that habit so that you can be calm at the very least and happy at best. This allows you to feel good more of the time. Because let’s face it, shiz comes down the pike all the time. So let’s surf that wave and choose the calm path. Practice makes perfect.

(This is not to deny that some very horrible things can happen in life. Even then, if sadness or frustration is an emotion that we will pass through, we can do it with calm and suffer less as a result. Most events, even though we may really really not like them, are not cataclysmic catastrophes. We can make it through and being calm will help!)

How to Choose Calm as Your Default Reaction to Chaos

Read this mantra narrative to yourself in the morning and evening each day for 30 days. This will help you re-program your subconscious default when things go wrong from automatic anger to the new habit of reacting calmly, confidently, and maybe even happily when things go wrong.

Remember, everything will work out in the end. If things haven’t worked out, well it’s just not the end yet. 🙂 (quote from movie “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel“)