This morning I was searching for some inspirational material and came across this very empowering short story. The author, as far as I know is unknown. Please take a moment to read the following:
Story
“The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farmhouse had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pickup truck refused to start.
While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence.
On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation.
His tanned face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
“Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied.” I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing’s for sure; troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up again.”
He paused. “Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick ‘em up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”
What do you do with your troubles?
How many times have you caught yourself lashing out at someone just because you were having a bad day?
Bad days are inevitable, they come and go, often times when least expected, yet bad day or not, we should strive not to bring others down with us. Through conscious effort we can learn to contain our bad days to only ourselves.
What’s the point of making another person miserable?
It is important to put things in perspective. We must not allow our frustrations and worries to get the best of us.
A few years ago, I had great difficulty containing my bad days. If I was having one my friends and family knew it immediately. I would respond negatively to nearly anything any one said. As a result no one wanted to be around me. They would do their very best to avoid me, as they knew at any moment I could explode like a ticking time bomb.
But as years past, I slowly developed the ability to control my negative emotions and reduce my out lashings toward other individuals. I do still have lapses every now and then, but the difference between myself now and myself of a few years ago is tremendous.
Personally I have found meditation and deep breathing to be fantastic remedies in which anger and worry slowly resides.
Keeping Perspective:
Many times the things that keep us worried and angry mean very little in the long run. Often times we blow our problems out of proportion. One great way to combat this from occurring is slowing your thinking down.
Ask yourself, is this worth getting worried about? Is this worth getting angry about?
More often than not just asking these simple questions will ground you into a more peaceful state of mind. Granted there will be things in which you should worry about, or should anger you, but the majority of the time our negative thoughts get the best of us.
If you find you’re self worrying or in a constant state of anger make an a special effort to keep things in perspective.
I promise you, if you make an effort to alter your perspective from a negative one to a more positive one, you will reap the benefits.
Do you let let your personal troubles affect your social life? Do you infect everyone with your bad mood? Do you find yourself always angry? It might be time for you to develop your own trouble tree. 
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