Daily Gratitude: I saw this on TV when a psychiatrist said it to one of his patients. It hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s something simple yet so important in figuring out our emotions and our responses. If I could just stop long enough to ask myself this question, I’d stay out of a lot of trouble. The other day I was on the “appointment schedule” for my AC unit. When I had called she told me it would be at 9 am. Then as the day got closer I got the automated message that says your appointment is between 8 and noon. WTH? So i got myself together enough to be ready of they came at 0800. No show. The things I had to do involved moving around and being in one room or the other, not tied to my phone (I keep the ringer off all the time). So I could do nothing productive. 1115 comes around and I get a message saying I’m on the list but they are late. Well what does that mean? Will they be here by noon (which makes the appointment time later than noon since they would need time to do their thing)? I had been working for an hour trying to calm myself down and not be angry at this. It would do no good and I knew it was just a “part” that was feeling this as an injustice (when it’s really just inefficiency and lack of caring on the company’s part). But this latest inanimate and impersonal message was the last straw. I called and just canceled the darn thing. At least I had made an effort more than I would have in the past. I didn’t default to the “they just are discriminating against me because it’s just to change the filters so they can stick me at the end”. I was able to realize that’s giving myself too much credit. But had I been able to employ the “is it fact or feeling?” question, I might have been able to keep myself in a much better space and gotten the darn thing taken care of. I’m going to paste this on various surfaces around my house to remind me to slow down and ask this question. Try it and let us know if it works for you.