I had a pretty crappy day last week. I know, right? That doesn’t sound like me – the eternal optimist. Even so, it happened. A personal situation percolated and sent me sideways. Following that event, all I wanted to do was sit on the couch, bury my head in a bag of potato chips, and insert a wine IV into my arm. I’m pretty sure pizza delivery was also in my near future.

The thing was, though, that I had plans. My friend was coming over soon to go for a walk.  It was a quintessential beautiful fall day. We’d held this date on the calendar for quite some time. 

My phone was nearby and as tempted as I was to give my friend a call and say, “Hey, yeah, about that walk … can we reschedule?” a thought crossed my mind: Angie, your son is at football practice. You’re going to have to pick him up – you’ve got responsibilities.  You can’t do this drunk. Plus, you have commitments. Get real, get it together, and get over it.    

I then thought about all the tricks I had in my bag to change my mood and follow through on the better decision for me: The Three Lens Trick.

I learned this practice from an article I read a while back – here’s how it works. Whenever you’re either ruminating on a difficult situation or feeling consumed about a mistake/challenge/unfortunate position you find yourself in, switch your frame of reference by looking at it from different lenses:

          The Wide Lens.  Take your situation and expand it.  How big is this, really?  As compared to your other challenges, or – hey – even the world’s challenges, how significant is the position you find yourself in?

          The Reverse Lens.  Next, look at your situation as if you were your best friend.  How can you extend compassion to yourself?  Can you even find a little bit of humor in the situation?

          The Long Lens.  Finally, consider your situation five years from now.  How are you going to feel about it then? 

So, the Three Lens Trick worked. My friend came over for our walk. After confiding in him about what was up, like a true friend, he offered to run back to his car, grab a flask and junk food, so we could walk, talk, drink … whatever.   

We just walked and talked. It was exactly what I needed, but I had to find the emotional energy to be able to feel present for it.

And that’s the cool thing about emotional energy: you can always change it with the right intention and tricks.

I challenge you: next time you feel slightly overwhelmed by a tsunami of negative emotions, just pause and think about the Three Lenses. I guarantee it’ll give you a new frame to move toward the better decisions you can make that honor the person you aspire to be … not just the person you feel you want to be in the moment.