Heart starts beating faster…
Starting to sweat…
I know it doesn’t fit…
Anxiety and annoyance fill me…
I know I’ll have to pay the flight ticket price for my over-sized bag as soon as the woman behind the counter asks me to insert my bag into the ridiculously tiny metal sizing thing.
Sounds overly dramatic right? Has it ever happened to you? Have you ever had a slightly-too-big bag that was caught at the flight gate? Or been caught out for something you knew you were doing wrong?
It’s so ironic. The stress and reaction that being caught attempting to squeeze past rules causes you. I knew that I was in the wrong. And yet, when I was called out for it, I felt so indignant. My ego gushed in, saying rude words at the lady in my mind, and angry at this low-cost airline’s ludicrous policies.
I sucked it up and paid, of course. But then it was rubbed in further when they told me my backpack had to go into the luggage hold. That means waiting on the other side, and adding that much longer before I saw my family.
I held it in, telling myself “it’s not worth it”. It just isn’t. The annoyance we feel when things don’t go our way. Because ultimately, it’s not within our control. That’s life: things won’t go our way. The earlier we accept that, the easier it will be.
I’ve gotten away with this backpack many times (perhaps my French side coming out). The rush of joy that comes from slipping past the rules, is undoubtedly lesser than the rush of angst that comes when I get caught. It’s backed by science: we get more upset when someone takes something away from us, than happy when they give it to us. I can’t help but find it sad. A similar cause leads to a lower low than high.
But, I wonder, is that within our control? After all, they are our reactions. What is within our control, if our own attitude is not? I’m not saying it’s easy (trust me, I know). But as S.N. Goenka teaches, “this too shall pass”. Whether that be the circumstances you find yourself in, or your reaction, all of it will change eventually.
I’m privileged that those 45 euros won’t break my bank account. And so, I will have forgotten about this bag occurrence in a month’s time, maybe even sooner – why waste energy being bothered about it now? Why react to something I can’t do anything about?
Here’s to dialing down our reactions of things out of our control.