Epic Battles from 9 to 5

I consider myself to be a fairly quiet girl. I keep to myself generally and don't put up much of a fight unless provoked. Since the birth of my daughter 9 months ago I made a promise to myself to stay in the moment and remember that the most important thing in life is my family.

With that being said, I work in an environment with some strong willed people. Working with such aggressive personalities sometimes causes me to feel pushed around and run over.

Today an incident occurred where I was in a meeting and I was asked to do something that went against my values. I was told to lie to my agents in order to get better productivity from them. Lying is simply not an option for me, no matter how you dress it up and call it something different such as “business needs.”

I decided I had to stand my ground. With my heart racing and palms sweating I told my peers that I didn't agree with these tactics and that I wasn't going to go along with their suggestions.

I was met with much resistance. I saw seething glances exchanged and hair tossed but after I had made my point, I felt that I had won this round.

Fresh off of my victory I got into my car and relived the entire experience by telling my husband, Chris. I felt vindicated for standing up for myself and as I told the story in it's entirety I became more enthralled in the details and in turn became more upset with the entire incident.

I managed to make my meeting an epic struggle of good versus evil and somehow made myself a hero in my own mind.

My mind continued to reel at the injustices that I had faced only an hour ago and I noticed that my body was tense when I got home. Chris suggested that I take a bath so that I could let some of my frustration and anxieties go.

I wanted to continue to relive my "Norma Rae" experience but the sound of Chris' voice was drowned out by the running bathwater. As the water rose in the bath tub I suddenly had a different take on the entire ordeal.

I hadn't really had any sort of life altering moment, nor had I become any sort of hero. True, I had stood up for what I believed in, but no war was being fought. It was then that I realized that I was not living in the present moment. The moment had come and gone, and I was still there at work standing on the table holding a sign over my head saying "Union."

My daughter was holding onto the outside of the tub right next to me and I hadn't even noticed her. Chris was laying on the bed looking at a picture of a beautiful flower that he had taken just moments ago, and my son Ayden was in the next room practicing his wrestling moves with splendid accuracy. I became aware of my surroundings and realized that I had forgotten the promise I had made to myself.

What seemed so important minutes ago now seemed silly and meaningless. I laughed to myself at how my entire last hour was filled with such passion, desperation, and anger and realized that this is not what I want my life to be about. Stress from work simply isn't worth it.

It's important to make your stance and it is equally important to let it go once you have gotten your point across. Remember what is important in life...the present moment. There is such beauty if we simply stop and look around. Life is fleeting...don't let the moments pass you by while you are caught in the stresses of everyday life. These are the lessons that I am learning each day.

It's fun to be an iconic movie heroine every once in a while, but it's more rewarding to be myself and to give and accept the love from those around me. I choose to see the good in others and in turn, goodness will find me.