Pet peeves. What are they really? They are a way for us to program ourselves in advance to be upset. I was on a hike in Palm Desert. It's a beautiful site. It's absolutely amazing, but I ruined part of my hike because of some pet peeve. What is it? I even started lying… Keep reading to find out... Or watch the video so that you can see our hike's paths.

There are tons of signs at the entrance of the hike that state you are allowed to bring dogs with you, but they need to be on a leash. Well, a lot of people don't follow the rules. There are some big dogs out here, and they're pretty much all running free! I was bothered, because the paths are very narrow at some point, and many times a big dog would be coming right at me, and then I would have to try to freeze and move to the side and, and hope that the dog would not push me over. I first thought I was worried about little kids potentially being pushed by the dogs, but what bothered me the most was the fact that I am a rule follower and it used to really bother me when people didn’t follow the rules (yes, I am talking about it in the past now, as this hike fixed this old limiting belief for me).

I know, of course, most dogs are friendly. That's what everybody says. "Oh, don't worry about it. My dog is really friendly." Still, I was so upset about the rules not being followed that as soon as I saw a dog without a leash, I would start getting angry. After a while, even though I'm not proud of this, I started lying. Whenever I would see a dog coming at me, I would say: "Yeah, he may be friendly, but I'm highly allergic." I would make that up. I'm not allergic to dogs. I had a dog. I love dogs. Our daughter has a dog, but I would pretend to be allergic just to make them feel bad about not having them on a leash.

How bad is that? I was totally ruining my hike. I am not proud of this.

What is your pet peeve? How are you programming yourself in advance to be upset? Is it at the office, when somebody says something, or when a meeting goes over? Maybe you're upset about little things like that because you've psyched up yourself in advance to feel like this.

At some point, my husband pointed it out. He said: "Nathalie, I think we have to stop this. I think we are overreacting. This is a beautiful hike. Let's enjoy it." And honestly, there are some beautiful, cute dogs. There are some tiny little ones. There are some big ones, and they are friendly, and they are nice. For the rest of the hike, I actually forced myself to say: "Wow, nice dog, cute dog." I feel so much better, because no dog will push me off the cliff. I'm strong. If an accident happens, it's on them. I don't need to ruin my hike because of something that may happen.

Have a great week, everybody. Enjoy the scenery. It's a beautiful life, and we have enough external stressors. We don't have to make up some extra ones on top of them.

LOOKING FOR A WARM GETAWAY?

I know a lot of you are wondering where we stay for two months in California. Here is the listing of our little gem perfectly located right on El Paseo in Palm Desert. Check it out if you are interested in a warm getaway. The owner is Blair Sloane, a Canadian from Victoria. We have returned to this same location 6-7 times already and we love it there. Simple, large rooms, fun retro look and fully equipped!

WE HAVE ENOUGH EXTERNAL STRESSORS.

What can you do to keep your calm and make sure you respond with wisdom and experience and NOT with stress, anxiety, and emotions?

You can start with these 22 questions.

Turn off the panic button, face stress not despite of it but BECAUSE of it, and control the overwhelm.

Check out some of my previous blog posts...