Sometimes Sh*t Just Happens

I was writing a post that I absolutely loved. The words were flowing, everything was sounding great—then I went to copy and paste all the text into another writing platform—and it all deleted. I couldn't undo it for whatever reason, and I started to freak out. "What the ACTUAL fuck" I said to myself as I kept clicking "undo" and seeing nothing reappear. I sat in my seat, feeling unbelievably frustrated. I had just spent the last half hour writing something I was proud of, and it was all gone. I took a breath, sat down, and reminded myself of this: sometimes shit just happens.

This of course isn't the worst thing that can happen to someone. Me losing a piece of writing is frustrating, but not the end of the world. I can always write something else that I can be proud of, and now I know not to use that former writing platform ever again because apparently you can't click "undo" and recover your text. But other more serious shit happens, like getting into a fender-bender, having a major fuck-up at work, getting shit on by a bird on your way to an interview—it happens, and it sucks. We all have those moments of feeling like the world is not on our side and that Murphy's Law is in full-swing. But what I can tell you from experience is that the more we can laugh it off, the better we'll feel.

"Of course this writing platform can't recover my text," I joked to myself. "What a day, sheesh!" Make a joke of it if you can. Sometimes we have to laugh at how these inconveniences happen to us, instead of stewing in frustration and cursing the world. It all goes back to one of my most loved topics: perspective.

Perspective and gratitude go hand-in-hand. When we're thankful for what we have, and thankful that that inconvenience wasn't worse than it was, then we'll have a stronger sense of calm. As someone who is prone to anxiety, I can tell you staying thankful and keeping things in perspective prevents me from spinning into a full-blown anxiety or panic attack. Remember that not everything goes as planned, and that mistakes and inconveniences will happen—that's a fact of life. The best you can do is forgive yourself and move on.

Has there been a recent event in your life that made you so frustrated with yourself/the situation that you either wanted to punch the wall or ball up and cry? How did you get through that moment? I'd love to hear your own methods. Let me know in the comments below or on my Instagram @zoeparisblog. :)