S--I--G--H-H-H-H vs SIGH!

I noticed recently that there are two kinds of sighs.

Yes, I know, I'm slow. So slow that I once spent nearly an hour in Okefenokee Swamp, wandering around, taking pictures of the alligators, taking close-up pictures of the alligators, talking about how animated and life-like they were, how real they looked, before one of my kids finally said "That's because they ARE real." I learned then that I could run backwards very fast. So, yes, I know, I'm slow.

Anyway. There is the long contented sigh. This happens when you sit down after the kids or grandkids are finally asleep. Or when you are starving and you take your first bite of a delicious meal. Or, starving or not, you take a bite of Chocolate Wave dessert. A long contented sigh. When does it happen for you?

Then there is the kind of sigh where you breathe in every bit of air in your zip code and let it out in one big hard rush. For me this happens when I'm frustrated, or aggravated or annoyed. Lots of times I don't even realize I'm doing it until I hear "what's wrong?" from Scott. My response, of course, is "nothing" usually 'cause if I'm sighing about it, it's because I don't actually want to say anything about it. Then it sometimes goes to an argument. You know the kind...
"Well, there must be something wrong if you're sighing about it."
"No, really it's nothing" (sigh)
"There you go again!"
(sigh)

By now whatever frustration, aggravation, or annoyance I was feeling is worse. The sigh didn't help one bit, but made things worse. So I decided I needed to fix that. This became one of my weekly goals. (More on that in another post) That's how I realized there are two kinds of sighs. And that's how I realized there is a huge inhale before that explosive exhale. Now when I take that big huge breath it reminds me what's going to happen next. I've already got all that air in me so I let it out r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w and - wow! - I feel better! A nice little bonus - a habit I don't like is broken (almost) and a side benefit!