# Year of the ZAO: Day 125

> Your feelings are the dashboard, not the destination.

**Published by:** [The ZAO Newsletter](https://paragraph.com/@thezao/)
**Published on:** 2025-05-05
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@thezao/year-of-the-zao-day-125

## Content

Good morning, happy Monday – May 5, 2025 in the Year of the ZAO: Day 125. Back in Maine. Here’s to a good week. I’m grounding myself today with another reminder from Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff — this one hit like a quiet truth bomb. Your feelings aren’t enemies. They’re not distractions. They’re guidance. When you’re spiraling in frustration, stress, resentment — that’s not a sign to double down on thinking your way out. It’s a dashboard warning light. Something’s off. You’re gripping the wheel too tightly. Time to ease up. This lesson reframed something for me: negative emotions don’t need to be analyzed to death. That cycle of “why do I feel this way” often just multiplies the fog. Instead, the trick might be to trust the signal and pivot. Breathe. Let go of the internal emergency broadcast. You don’t have to fight your way back to peace — you can ease your way there. As I reset this Monday, I’m choosing to listen, not argue with my feelings. Let them point me back to calm. Life isn’t an emergency unless we make it so. – BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZAO Team

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