This week I've been working on one common way I am often highly reactive.

Neighbors. Noisy, silly, obnoxious neighbors. Even though our apartment complex has new owners and management and is -much- better, I discovered I still reacted as if everything was an emergency.

So, now what I do is first evaluate: Do I need to call police or management? Is this an actual emergency/against rules? If not, I go to next plan. Distract myself. Turn on music and a white noise machine to take care of neighbor noise. Close blinds if what is bothering me would otherwise be right in view. Distract, distract, distract.

Make sure that I am breathing well, that I'm not tiptoeing and pacing around. Calm. I use peaceful images and thoughts.

This last event, rather than reacting and suffering, I evaluated first if I needed to get authorities involved, I did not. I turned on pleasing music and set up the white noise machine where it could blur out the sounds. I closed the blinds to the window involved so I wouldn't keep checking what was going on. I took a nice hot bath, which soothes my already achy muscles and any tension. Hummed to myself, found a good book and settled in to read. And I noticed this time I was able to stay on an even keel. It was no big deal. I didn't go through a big surge of anxiety.

Sarah