RE: When something sucks, don’t focus on it.
I found that by choosing to do something that made me smile even while whatever what happening was royally sucking, coupling that with something that made me laugh, and adding something that helped me relax (breathing, exercise, journaling), I found that I was happier.
I found that investing in that gave me a better return on investment emotionally than being still upset about an upsetting situation. Doesn't mean you don't feel the SUCK while it's happening, right? Doesn't mean that at all.
It's just that choosing something more positive to focus on even with the underlying suck is still just as valid of a choice as choosing to obsess over the suck.
Eventually, triggers weren't as triggering and that is where, at least for me, the real victory started to emerge.
I remember when my brother broke up with his girlfriend. He had such an explosive angry personality but he wasn’t just out of energy to explode and so he just squeezed a banana and said “I feel like this banana”. We both started laughing. I loved that.
Just look for the happy wherever you can find it, even in a ridiculous way, right?