Frustrated

I find I’m frustrated more often than I remember being in the past.  I notice that sometimes I let that frustration fester into anger.  When I notice it, I pause take a couple of cleansing breaths and look for the source.  Nine times out of ten, there is no specific source. It’s just frustration gone bad.

If you start at the source of the frustration you can head off the anger. Each of us have certain things that drive our frustration. To name a few of my triggers: the news, inequity, bureaucracy/forms, locked-down thinking, and  being late.  So when I enter the zones of potential frustration, I remind myself this is where my frustrations start.  I ask myself, what is tolerable for me? Do I “need” to be present for this next moment or can I delegate it, skip it or find a workaround so I don’t have to go into the eye of the storm? Then, I remind myself there is a potential to get frustrated, and I squelch it every time I feel myself “going there”.  My goal is to avoid frustration welling up into anger.