A recent conversation with a friend meandered to a struggle of hers: anxiety about getting burned when using the oven. Of course, she was using potholders, but there are still quite a few ways to accidentally get burned. And burns suck. Anxiety, which is often less than reasonable, also sucks.
As you can probably guess from the title of the post, we quickly reached the conclusion that oven mitts would offer her the protection she needs. More importantly, they would offer her peace of mind when using the oven. And that means, she'll be able to use the oven more often, making the task of cooking that much easier.
Now, it wasn't like she was starving before this conversation, so this may seem like a pretty small change to her quality of life overall. Except, making one thing easier is always worth it. When we're juggling a million stressors, it can be hard to see how we can lighten that load even a little. Sometimes, outside perspective is the only way. Sometimes, we see a potential solution but it still feels insurmountable. Or maybe the problem seems too tiny compared to the Real Big Problems, and we convince ourselves (or, perhaps, stress and anxiety convince us) that fixing that tiny problem isn't worth it.
But consider that experiment with holding a glass of water. Brief recap: picking up a glass of water isn't hard for many of us; holding it awhile isn't that hard either; but if you keep having to hold it aloft, it seems heavier and heavier as time goes on. The same goes for your stressors, whether they're pebbles or boulders. Putting down a pebble is, overall, a small change. But incremental change in the right direction is a good thing that can still have a great impact on your everyday life.
So, let's start with the oven mitts.
What's one way you can make your life a little bit easier right now? Or, what's one everyday annoyance you'd like help solving? Let us all know in the comments!
