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I'm very glad to see you here. Your "uncloaking" brings home another important point: community. Stick with those working upon and in high vibration.
There is a lot of work to do, some of it Troubling. It will be important to be able to choose to sing and dance and laugh by choice, in groups. I'm extremely introverted so I tend to physically isolate (we recharge when alone, the opposite of extroverts who thrive in groups) and the concept of groups isn't natural to me, it must be chosen. Peace!
Handbook to higher Consciousness. It has 12 pathways and when you start feeling unbalanced you know you are violation of one of them.
One of them starts out: I welcome the opportunity, even if painful, that my moment to moment experiences, offer me, to become aware of the addictions I must reprogram, to blah blah blah, I can't remember. But it is an attitude that 'upsets', are a time to search our demands and expectations, and figure out what it is we believe we just have to have, or we pull out the emotion driven temper tantrums or sulky sadness until we get what we want.
I'll look up the whole thing if I can find the book. It's all taped together with the pages falling out.
As trouble, drama, chaos and even suffering swirls all around, I choose to stay aware of it rather than remove myself or attempt to "rise above."
In order to not be pulled into a downward spiral of despair as a result of being aware, I remind myself to focus on how to be of service...positive action...rather than stay immersed in the negativity.
For those familiar with Abraham's messages, one last week confirmed this for me:
"If you intend to be of assistance, your eye is not upon the trouble but upon the assistance, and that is quite different. When you are looking for a solution, you are feeling positive emotion— but when you are looking at a problem, you are feeling negative emotion."
It really is like flexing a muscle. I'm finding this ability to focus and maintain that perspective comes more easily than it did previously.
FWWM
I think the most basic thing is Breathing...whether I am in traffic, the store, etc... Funny, I was in the store today and feeling Impatient, ended up cracking a joke to the person in front of me and it totally shifted it. so laughter works too.,..in fact i think it is of UBER importance to NOT take anything too personally these days...because we are ALL in flux!
let's see....I think the other thing is to remind myself to talk and reach out to the people in my life that are positive and of like-mindedness. I need to keep perspective and often it is that friend who gives me a sacred quote or offers reiki or an insight into the spiritual nature of an issue...it keeps me in the 'right side of "reality"' I just have to listen to my own guidance about who to call ...
I am one of those out of town friends. I have a dog and cat, and I'm still smoking (much less! yay!). You would be miserable with me around.
I want to make a suggestion, though. Obviously I am not a doctor and this is not *medical advice*. When I posted on facebook about my not smoking program, one friend, who is a massage therapist and teaches seminars for breath work) pointed out to me that Grief is held in our lungs. Grief and sadness are lung issues. You had that terrible bout of pneumonia and you already have 'sad' lungs with asthma. There are a lot of food things you can use to help. http://www.healingfoodreference.com/lungs.html And breath work would also be beneficial for you. I like the story Cleita tells about how she helped her late husband with his COPD. She got him a harmonica to exercise his lungs. That's one approach. Doing routines of deep breathing is another. Breathe! Do the best you can with the condition of your lungs as they are. I'm finding that meditation is also good for my lungs. I smoke a lot less when I meditate.
Every time one of the locals there says or does hurtful things, that pain is going straight to your lungs. Even though less noticeable, I think those feelings are harming you as much as an allergen. Feel better
Hadn't thought of that. When I had that years-long bout of pneumonia when I was getting a divorce, I was also barfing all the time from sinus infections. I think that my body was literally rejecting all the hate and emotional abuse and lack of respect my then-husband had dumped on me.
In the other thread, now Rick (and someone named new cappy moon) is getting on my case for attempting to get away from the guy in the store. Told them I'd already had a life threatening vascular incident in Nov of 2011. Trying to protect my own health by avoiding a very stressful situation, because of my high blood pressure. Oh wonderful! 
Everytime I talk to anyone but a therapist or hubby about my problems, somebody attacks me for whatever I did. No idea where I would move if I could.
I keep remembering what Freddy Nietszche said, "If you value your thoughts, why do you speak them aloud?"
I'll try to take the Buddhist view and attempt to stop being attached to wanting approval from other humans and wanting friends.
I always tell them not to work too hard, and that will usually get a laugh. 
I always sympathize with how hard they work. But we still don't have any friends.
