Let’s start by defining what frustration is. Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines frustration as the following: “a feeling of anger or annoyance caused by being unable to do something: the state of being frustrated.
Something that causes feelings of anger and annoyance. The fact of being prevented from succeeding or doing something.”
Do you agree with these definitions? What is your own definition? How do you feel when you are frustrated?
I would have to say that frustration occurs out of feeling that we are not where we want to be; that we are not getting the results we want, and/or that things are not happening as we would want them to happen.
It can also occur out of expecting people or things to show up in a certain way, and they showing up differently than what you expected.
Therefore if we identify how it feels, then it should not come as a surprise that it feels heavy, uncomfortable, and uneasy.
It can feel tiring, exhausting, and overwhelming. If this is the case, how can you begin to see the gift in frustration?
This is how you can begin to see the gift in frustration:
- Frustration, just like all other emotions, can serve us to drop the judgment of it being good or bad. Frustration, just like all other emotions, is just energy. Therefore, there is no need to judge it as good or bad, it simply is energy. It is what you do with that energy that is either “good or bad.”
- Frustration can serve in you practicing dropping the judgment that you have placed on yourself for things not being as you would have expected. It can serve as a way for you to see yourself and the situation with compassion rather than with judgment.
- Frustration simply indicates that you are someone who has a lot of potential, that you are not living to your maximum potential, and that it is time for you to start doing so.
- Frustration can help you to build the muscle of trust: trust in yourself, in the Universe, in a Higher Power or in all of the above.
- Frustration can serve as fuel to help you to move forward. If you weren’t frustrated most likely would not feel the nudge to move forward.
- Frustration can help you to become accepting of others by understanding that you do not have control over them, and that they have the right to show up in whichever way they want as long as they are respecting you and your boundaries.
- Frustration can also help you to slow down, self-reflect, and get clear on what you truly want.
To summarize frustration can serve you to become a more grounded person once you begin to see it as what it is: just energy, as a gift in disguise, and fuel that is going to propel you to move forward.
You too can use frustration in your favor as opposed to letting it consume you and take you down.
You can learn to work with your emotions and be in control of them vs. them in control of you. Schedule your free 15 minute consultation by emailing, texting or filling out the contact form and get started.
