I normally have pretty good luck with the Law of Attraction. But perhaps the focus on "stress reduction" this month on the blog has caused my stress level to rise a bit. One bright side to that is I have lots of situations to apply the stress relief tips that are being shared.A stress reduction strategy is to pause before responding to someone when angry.

I encountered a website situation that had got me all riled up. I did not realize at the time I was handling the situation well until I reflected on its successful conclusion. Let me take you through what happened recently and my response.

I was working with an online marketing consultant for some time. When the work was finished, about a month afterwards I received an email where my former consultant (and household name) was pitching a similar membership plan to the one I have for the Meditation Masters Network. I was irate!

The betrayal I first felt made me feel like crap.Next I felt my blood boil. I vented to my wife.I emailed the offer I had received to others and commented. I needed everyone to agree that I had been screwed, I was in the right, this person was a jerk.

In hindsight I was blowing off steam by venting. I feel venting about a situation immediately is a healthy thing to do, you don’t want to keep stress bottled up inside where it could manifest itself in your body somewhere. The important part about venting is the audience you choose. Vent with trusted people that are not part of the reason you are angry in the first place.

Over the next few days of venting, I surveyed my trusted advisors for their reactions. This is not so that someone else can tell me how I have to feel about the situation. But hearing different opinions brings greater perspective on the situation in angles you can’t see, especially when emotionally invested.

Then, I replayed all the events in my mind's eye from his perspective. Then I performed some additional due diligence on the other site. It turned out it was not a membership concerning meditation, it just had meditation as part of its offerings. Furthermore, the people featured on this site had no overlap with the meditation experts I had gathered other than the person I was agitated with.

A wise person who was my sounding board during my deliberations asked me a pointed question that made everything come together. *What is your desired outcome?" It makes everything so clear to ask that! Because events occur in life, people observe events, then people make judgments on events, that triggers emotions, and then more events occur. I had just observed a situation and judgments were flying!

It is a position of power to first decide what your desired outcome is. This is much more beneficial than making constant judgements and having to cope with the emotional results of those judgments. Making judgements and having reactions is not conscious living, it is deciding to be a victim of your environment.

I decided I wanted to know the details of this person’s involvement with the other site.If I found out that there was no reason to be so upset, I wanted the teacher to join the Masters Meditation Network.I was going to draw the line on any business relationship with him if he was involved in the membership site. So I setup a conference call and put it on the table.

The final result was that I got irate without knowing all the information.The email pushed my buttons, but there wasn't a huge conspiracy to pirate my membership program idea. My anger was misdirected and I almost lost a great meditation teacher and business consultant.

I did not get everything I wanted, but I did learn I would’ve been over-reacting if I blew my top over the situation.Instead, a household name in personal development is involved and committed to the Master Meditation Network. By following a plan of delaying my angry response, the Meditation Masters Network is stronger for it and my stress has dissolved.

Office Stress Reduction

1. Feel the anger and don’t try to diminish or rationalize it

2. Vent with those you trust

3. Listen to feedback

4. Decide what you want out of the situation

5. Go for what you want

6.Accept the result and move on