How to make peace with frustration.

NOTICE.

The definition of frustration is the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of an inability to change or achieve something. It’s an emotional experience of resistance when something doesn’t go the way you think it should go and directly points to a strong desire to be in control.

NOTICE this: Frustration can be a motivator to change, but frequent frustration can cause anger and depression. The 5X5 rule can be helpful to eliminate a pattern of getting frustrated about things that aren’t that important. Ask yourself will this matter in 5 years? If not, it’s not worth more than 5 minutes of upset.

OPEN.

There are both internal and external causes of not being able to change or achieve something. Often external roadblocks are out of your control so it’s important to recognize that while a situation itself may be unexpected or even undesirable, you do not have to react with resistance and frustration.

OPEN to this: A tool in yoga that can be used for balancing emotions is cultivating the opposite. A way to apply it to being frustrated about things that are out of your control is to ask yourself what could be the upside here? As in, being stuck in traffic because there’s an accident, I am safe right now.

WELCOME.

Chronic frustration is about feeling out of control and the one thing you always have control over is your attitude. If you feel frustrated more than you want to, this is a key truth to integrate into your life. Eliminate frustration over small things, practice seeing the other possibilities, and clarify how you’d rather react.

WELCOME this: Frustration can turn you into a person who sees everything as a problem. Try shifting Oh no! into OK. As in Oh no! What am I going to do? Oh no! Why is this happening? Oh no! This didn’t get done! to OK, what am I going to do? OK, why is this happening? OK, this didn’t get done.