Sweating the small stuff can be good for mental health

Whoever first advised “don’t sweat the small stuff ” had it all wrong. Because sweating the small stuff helps take your mind off the big stuff.

One day last week, for instance, I woke up to the usual worrisome big stuff on the news. COVID-19. Inflation. Russia possibly invading Ukraine. I couldn’t do much about any of that, so I went about the mundane activities of everyday life. Took a shower. Drove to the grocery store. Swung by Dunkin’ for a small decaf and half a dozen jelly donuts.

When I got home and reached for the garage door’s remote control device, I couldn’t find it. Apparently, it had fallen into the narrow space between car seat and the center console, which is a veritable Bermuda Triangle for small items, a four-door version of the living room couch. I stuck my hand into the crevasse, but couldn’t feel it. So I got out of the car, knelt in the driveway and searched under the seat. I found a family of tic tacs. Ballpoint pens. A coupon for 50 cents off on a tube of toothpaste (Expired 9/17/2021). No garage door opener.

Frustration mounted as I widened the search. I looked under the passenger’s seat. In the backseat. In the console. Frustration merged with irrationality, and I looked in the trunk.

By now I no longer was giving any thought to COVID or the economy. I didn’t care if Russia invaded Indiana. All I

could think about was finding that garage door opener.

Perhaps, I thought, it had fallen out of the car during my errands. Not likely, but to a man who could imagine an inanimate object migrating to the back of a car, popping the trunk and hopping in, anything was possible.

I drove back to the grocery store and searched where I had parked. At Dunkin’, a car was sitting in the space mine had occupied. If the remote was under its wheels, it probably wasn’t much good anymore.

Worries nagged at me as I drove back home. What if I never found it? Would I have to buy a new one and how much would that cost? Would a certified garage door technician need to come out and sync it with the control box inside the garage? And how much would THAT cost? Maybe I’d have to buy a new garage door. Or a new garage. I’m a master at imagining worst possible scenarios.

When I got home, my wife came out with a flashlight, searched under the seat and found the remote. I’d wasted two hours worrying about nothing.

But it was two hours of not sweating the big stuff.