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“For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is your level of frustration these days? Does it seem to be higher than it used to be? Are seemingly minor irritations getting you upset lately? Do you get overly frustrated when things don’t go smoothly? Do you get impatient waiting in lines, traffic jams or not getting what you want, when you want it?
We are hearing more and more news stories about people who just seem to momentarily losing their minds over what seems to be fairly trivial occurrences. In psychology, frustration is a common emotional response to opposition. Related to anger and disappointment, it arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of individual will. The greater the obstruction, and the greater the will, the more the frustration is likely to be. Causes of frustration may be internal or external.
These days the country, and the world at large seems to be experiencing a sense of low level dread because of the economy, the national debt and too many other things to list here. Suffice to say, you know what concerns you on a daily basis. That is the bad news.
The good news is that you can learn how to control frustration, irritation and anger by recognizing the “triggering thoughts” that set off these unfortunate and debilitating emotions. You see, the actual event that one experiences does NOT cause angry and frustrating emotions. It’s the internal thought you think to yourself about that event—the negative or fearful thought—that causes an emotional reaction.
Once you understand the self-talk habits you have developed such as, telling yourself that “These people are ——- (fill in the blanks here)”, you can easily learn how to stop, recognize that your thoughts at that moment are not helpful ones and instantly change those thoughts to ones that will not lead to angry, frustrated, and potentially dangerous reactions.
Employing positive affirmations is another way to help you to ward off anger-producing provocations. For example, telling yourself that “I have a positive, patient and healthy attitude today,” will help you to actually be more patient when you are feeling provoked to becoming irritated.
I recently produced a hypnotic series, How to Permanently Master Your Anger, so that you can quickly learn to desensitize yourself from these emotions, using the amazing power of hypnosis.
