What to do after you lose your cool

Ever have one of those moments where you lose your cool? It happens for me more than I'd like it to. What do you do after this happens? This morning was tough in our house. I had two kids up most of the night with stomach bugs and another who fought me on going to school today. In that moment when he wouldn't go into the building, I lost my cool and yelled at him. After the moment subsided, I started to think about what I could do. I'd love to tell you that I always use my yoga off the mat, but that isn't the case. I should have stopped and taken a few breaths and not yelled.

But no one is in control of their emotions all the time. When I took a few moments to think, I kept thinking of the phrase, "How human of me." We're all human, made of complex emotions and sometimes it helps to just remind ourselves of that.

The other thing I did was apologize to my son and talk to him about what was going on, “I'm sorry I was frustrated, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.” Like in our yoga practice, we don't expect ourselves to know how to do a tough pose the first time we try it. Taking our yoga off the mat is the same way. Just like we won't always "nail the pose," we won't always respond how we'd like to in the heat of the moment.

This week, I'm working to give myself grace and repeat as many times as necessary, "How human of me.” I hope you'll join me. I'd love to hear tips you have for things that work for you when you lose your cool. Shoot me an email back - I always love to hear from you!

love and light,
Molly