No wonder you're happy in Calgary, these are great suggestions! I once spent some time in a sort of convent type of setting, and we were sheltered to a large degree from the kind of negativity that "regular" life normally dishes out. You would not believe how quickly the happy-o-meter goes up when you're listening to non-aggressive music (mostly classical for us, certainly no heavy metal and rap hadn't been invented yet) and you've turned off the teevee news. Since most of us can't live our lives that way, they also taught us HOW to do simple things like watching the news, reading the newspaper, and dealing with annoying things like traffic jams. And I do mean simple!
If you do watch the news, there's usually not going to be a warning that a negative story is coming up. Face it, most of it's going to be negative--news orgs thrive on blood, gore, angst and pain. Just pull yourself back from it, and see it for what it is. It's NOT "you" and usually not even related to you. Feeling pain because of that news is not going to help those who ARE involved. That said, a little prayer or sending healing is always a Good Thing.
USE delays of all sorts--traffic clogs are great for repeating mantras or affirmations--or eyes-open prayers. Grocery lines are great for reading a bit more of your favorite book--and if you're reading, you're not fuming over how slow the line is moving.
Don't take things personally. If someone bumps into you, assume it's an accident. Since that person is probably harried and stressed, flash them a big smile and take the tension down a notch or two.
In fact, SMILING does wonders not only for you, but everyone who sees it.
So that's some of what we were taught, and some of this Marci covers in her book. We were being taught that to bring us closer to Spirit, but it also brought a lot of joy.
Just a few thoughts--perhaps a bit off topic for here, so I apologize if that's the case.
