Perspective

On a car trip this weekend I was  reading Living Your Yoga by Judith Lassiter. In the chapter called Perspective she tells the following story:

"A villager lived in a small house with his wife, mother-in-law, six children, a cow and some chickens. It was driving him crazy. So we went to the village rabbi and asked for help. The rabbi said that he could solve the problem. He advised the man to buy a goat. Overjoyed, the man immediately went out and bought a goat. Now he had a wife, a mother-in-law, six children, a cow, some chickens and a goat. The house was even more chaotic than before. The villager returned to the rabbi and described the increased chaos. Once again, the rabbi said that he could solve the problem. He told the man to sell the goat. Obediently, the villager went home and sold his goat. Suddenly, all he had in the small house were his wife, his mother-in-law, his six kids, a cow and some chickens. Things were positively peaceful without the goat."

She continues:

"Borrowing from this story, I decided to make a mantra for daily living..... when you find yourself in a situation that could be made better if you were to step back to gain perspective, inhale gently and on your next exhalation, say to yourself "Sell the goat."

I promptly read the story to my husband. Later that weekend my daughter had an accident that made us both anxious, but my Husband's anxiety kept escalating. After a few minutes of increased tension I whispered to him "sell the goat" he instantly began to relax.  Later that same day, I was freaking out at my other daughter over something out of her control and I didn't seem to be able to let it go. David said to me "kill the goat" I burst out laughing and said "it's sell the goat." Regardless , the expression did it's work!

Give it a try!