In this article I’m going to explore what irritation is and what to do when you find yourself easily irritated by people and situations.
What is irritation?
It looks to me that irritation is an emotion. Something that arises in us in response to what appears to be an external trigger.
But what I’d like to look at is where the irritation comes from.
I’m pretty certain that if you’re reading this article you’re familiar with the feeling. And I’m pretty sure you think it comes from an external source.
Perhaps an irritating person, or an irritating situation?
Where does irritation come from?
It’s very common to believe that irritation comes from outside; from that annoying person or situation.
However what I’m going to share is that the irritation actually comes from you.
Now bear with me here while I explain.
Emotions, as I talked about in a previous article Allowing And Accepting Emotions, come as a direct result of our thoughts. Our body responds to whatever is going through our mind in the form of thought.
So when we feel irritation, the only thing that is going on, is that our body is responding to our thoughts, which may be conscious or unconscious.
The feeling of irritation is the result of thoughts passing through our system.
My experience of being easily irritated
Last week I was having lunch with my friend Clare, a coach at Blindsided By Thought, and we were discussing our irritation at various people in our lives.
In that moment it looked true that those people were irritating. Even though we both have an understanding of how our experience is created (from the inside out).
What we hadn’t realised was that irritation was just another form of emotion.
And what was also invisible to both of us was that we had a lot of judgement about our irritation.
So rather than allow the irritation to be there, we were fighting it because we believed that being irritated meant something about us.
For me being irritated meant that I was a bad person.
I had judgement about the fact that I could even get irritated when I understand the Three Principles.
I also felt that being easily irritated was a sign that I was a bad wife/mother/daughter, and on and on.
So what do you do when you’re irritated?
OK, this is the bit I know you’ll have skipped to.
The bit where I tell you how to fix this being easily irritated situation so that it never happens again. Right?
Wrong.
I can’t tell you that.
But I can tell you, from my own experience, that when you see irritation for what it is, without judgement, it will no longer plague you.
Like any other emotion, when we accept it; when we welcome it in without judgement, it will pass through.
When you consider that thoughts are not your own, they are just passing ‘visitors’ that when allowed to flow through you without resistance will do just that, then the associated emotions do the same.
And as humans we experience both thoughts and emotions. They mean nothing about us. They are neither good nor bad (until we decide they are).
Freedom is allowing all of it. The sadness, the happiness, the irritation and anger.
What if all emotions were allowed?
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