'Spontaneous Happiness'

I am currently reading Dr. Andrew Weil's book "Spontaneous Happiness." I'm hoping it will help me get the emotional side of my life into balance, since that contributes so much to physical progress. It's not always easy. Sometimes, as the "Younger Next Year" authors say, you don't like all the members of your pack but you still need a pack. That's especially true for those of us still plugging away at jobs where not all our co-workers are uniformly pleasant.

We can't control what kind of cortisol, negativity, perfectionism or dogma co-workers bring to the job. We can only control our reaction to that.

I am learning various meditation techniques that should help me interrupt the whirling of the brain when co-workers act in untoward ways. One meditation technique is to do a deep breathing exercise involving the numbers 4-4-8. The other is to repeat the mantra Beartooth Pass, in honor of the 10,945-foot pass on the Montana-Wyoming border I bicycled up last summer.

Becoming better able to handle "attacks" is a long-term challenge. I can't change other people. I can only change my reaction to them and how long it takes for me to return from negativity to an optimistic emotional set point, my calm center.