A note from Donna
Well, it’s all going on at my YouTube channel – not only have I answered the first of the ‘Ask Donna’ questions, I announce here a new website with a new way to get in touch with me – www.blissquest.com, and share with you some sarcasm from my guidance – who said spirit didn’t have a sense of humour?! Check it out at www.youtube.com/donnaonthebeach.
A Day At The Beach
It seemed like an excellent idea – I’d drive to my friend’s house, and then she’d drive to the beach from there and we would spend the day at the beach. We didn’t consider 3 things: 1. Directions – how hard could it be to get from London to the coast?! 2. It was the hottest day of the year (although given the rest of British Summer Time, we would never have guessed the weather would be so good!) and 3. The world and his dog were also heading to the beach for the last weekend of the ‘summer’.
The flat facts: we ended up on the wrong motorway, heading 60 miles west of where we wanted to go and ended up getting to the beach at 5 in the afternoon (having set off before lunch!). Feeling sorry for me yet? Please don’t – it was a fabulous day…and what the flat facts don’t tell you is that we stopped for lunch in the lovely little town of Chichester, if we’d gone the ‘right’ way we’d have been stuck in traffic just as long, both of us have Irish ancestry so our pale irish skin would have burnt to a crisp had we got to the beach any earlier…and we had 3 lovely hours at the beach watching the sunset when it wasn’t crammed full with people. Perfection.
So why am I telling you this story? Well, because both of us were supremely unconcerned about the plans going slightly awry…and that was what made it such a great day. I could imagine another 100 cars in a similar position with its occupants getting stressed out, angry and fed up, and never looking for the silver lining in their particular cloud. Think about it, how would you have reacted to discover that you were on the wrong motorway, heading away from where you wanted to go, and stuck in traffic on the hottest day of the year?
Would you have been relaxed, easy-going, happy that things would work out perfectly in the end? Or would you have been stressed, pissed off and busy complaining at top volume? Ok, it made it easier that my friend is possibly the most easy going person alive (and has been since the womb apparently!), but my general attitude is that something good will happen…even if it’s not entirely what I expect!
How often have you made a situation worse by being arsey about things you have no control over? Or got totally stressed about your plans going awry? It may amaze you to hear that sometimes things don’t work out as you expect…or have you experienced that yourself once or twice?? And you may also have noticed that stress rarely adds fun, enjoyment…or even any help at all to a situation! So let go of the reins a bit, and let life take you on a comedy detour…and enjoy it!
Something to play with
This week make a real effort to enjoy it when your plans don’t work out the way you planned and go with the flow – who knows, this turn of events might be even better – it was for us!