MY WEEKLY BLOG<\/p>\n
HURRY UP!<\/p>\n
A few days ago, I suffered through a full hour of repetitive\u00a0digital music (if you could call it that) while I was on hold with AT&T.\u00a0Like a recurring nightmare, I got switched from person to person four times, retelling\u00a0my story to each one, being put back on hold, and never getting the issue\u00a0resolved. I\u2019m not taking it personally. It happens to all of us and it\u2019s\u00a0profoundly exasperating when we hear, \u201cDue to heavy call volume, there will be unusually\u00a0long waiting times. Please go to our website.\u201d Or \u201cDue to Covid\u2026\u201d and it\u2019s\u00a0clear that COVID has nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHurry up!\u201d we\u2019re saying to ourselves. And then, when we\u00a0actually get a human being on the line, they say a hundred words instead of the\u00a0ten words that are required. Or we get cut off and we\u2019re left with the drone of\u00a0a dial tone that invokes rage and disappointment.<\/p>\n
I just did my fair share of complaining in the paragraphs\u00a0above, thanks for indulging me, but I promise that part is over. This blog is not a lament or a whine.\u00a0It\u2019s about something else \u2013 finding a way to use those maddening experiences to\u00a0take a pause, to breathe and to become more mindful. Or at least to try. I read\u00a0a lecture by a popular Indian guru (I forget which one) who suggested that when
we run into obstacles like red lights, bumper to bumper traffic, telemarketers,\u00a0robo-calls and being put on hold, we can use them as opportunities to wake up\u00a0and de-escalate our anxiety. We can bring our attention back to our breath\u00a0instead of deciding how much Xanax to take.<\/p>\n
I noticed that after my call with AT&T, my breath had\u00a0become shallow and my anxiety had spiked. I had sacrificed my peace of mind and\u00a0clarity to something over which I had absolutely no control. I felt like people\u00a0were wasting my time and I just wanted them to hurry up. I wanted them to be\u00a0who they weren\u2019t and make them wrong for it. I wanted them to be smarter, move\u00a0faster and treat me better when I wasn\u2019t being particularly kind or smart\u00a0myself. Stating calm in these situations is a tall order, I know, and I can\u2019t\u00a0say I\u2019ve gotten proficient at it, but like I said, I\u2019m trying. I\u2019m searching\u00a0for a way to turn my impatience into something that doesn\u2019t stress me out and turn\u00a0me into a human cannonball.<\/p>\n
Some years back, I was trying to get reimbursed for an\u00a0ambulance fee, about $1,500.00. I called weekly and they kept saying it would
be paid in ninety days. This went on for close to a year. It appeared that they\u00a0didn’t want to pay me and they were trying to wear me down and when I said as\u00a0much to one of the agents, his silence made me think I was right. But even if I\u00a0was, that was irrelevant. No matter someone else\u2019s intentions, I was allowing\u00a0my frustration to fester with each phone call. In fact, I could feel my anxiety\u00a0rising as soon as I picked up the phone, before I ever punched in a number or spoke\u00a0to anyone. Just imagine if I had used that time to breathe. To become calm. To slow\u00a0down. Just think of all the meditation I\u2019d have gotten under my belt. By the\u00a0way, they finally paid me but I lost in the end because I had been at the\u00a0effect of so much stress and anger for so long. Getting back the money they\u00a0owed me paled in comparison to how much of my wellbeing I had given up.<\/p>\n
Living in the world requires patience a great deal of the\u00a0time. It requires us to wait when we don’t want to, to tolerate things and
people we don’t like and to be kind to people who infuriate us. I think about the\u00a0current adage, \u201cIt is what it is.\u201d And there\u2019s nothing I can do about it. I find\u00a0that if I manage to be gentle with the anonymous voice at the other end of the\u00a0phone, if I treat them with respect after I\u2019ve been on hold for a long time,\u00a0they are far more interested in helping me with my issue. I can either lose my\u00a0temper or play the cards I\u2019ve been dealt with some grace and acceptance. I can\u00a0gentle myself through it or I can become enraged, which causes me even more\u00a0stress and anger, just what I don’t need.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anger invites more anger. Shallow breathing invites upset\u00a0and disorientation. Frustration invites stress which eats away at our bodies\u00a0and our mental health. The next time they put me on hold or I get stuck in\u00a0traffic winding up the canyon to my home, I\u2019m going to do my best to remember\u00a0to breathe deeply and keep my anxiety in check. It\u2019s a challenge but if you\u00a0agree to practice it, so will I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MY WEEKLY BLOG HURRY UP! A few days ago, I suffered through a full hour of repetitive\u00a0digital music (if you could call it that) while I was on hold with AT&T.\u00a0Like a recurring nightmare, I got switched from person to person four times, retelling\u00a0my story to each one, being put back on hold, and never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}