Today I wanted to talk about irritability. Mainly because at times my normal zen-like composure leaves me and I get so annoyed and angry I end up wanting to scream, pack a bag and go hide out somewhere far away from the rest of the world for a while.
It’s not easy staying calm, especially when you live in a busy city like London, but even growing up in the country had its own frustrations (mainly in the form of there being one bus a day in to the nearest town 5 miles away and not having a driving license or car).
What I’m saying is that stress gets to the best of us. It wears us down then pounces when we’re at our most vunerable – so we snap at someone who probably doesn’t deserve the full wrath of our irratibility and general ‘stinkiness’.
When I was in my early twenties I had a problem with food – in that I didn’t eat it, or got so hungry I did, then starved myself again as punishment. This was after the doctor incident.
Anyway, during the ‘dark ages’ as I fondly refer to them, I found myself, not surprisingly, incredibly irritable the majority of the time.
There were a few people who tried to help me, but I ended up snapping at them; not because they were the problem, but because I was.
That’s the thing about irritability, or any other negative feeling – it acts as a mirror for your own soul – yes – yes I am getting all deep here, stay with me :-).
Let me explain…
Many wiser than me have said that anything we find irritating in others are traits we are struggling with in ourselves.
This means, if someones annoying you because they’re being really picky about something, it could be because somewhere, deep down, it annoys you that you can be so picky sometimes.
Now, for most of us, that’s a hard pill to swallow. It’s not easy admitting that we’re – dun dun duuuunnn – human. But there you have it. We are. We’re not infallible and we’re certainly allowed to make some mistakes and suffer from a bit of irritability from time to time.
I’m writing this for you. To tell you that it’s OK.
Accept yourself, forgive yourself and move the hell on!
If things really are getting to you, there are a host of simple things which can help. You can find lots of my articles (a good place to start is the ‘new here’ page or the ‘related posts’ below) but if you want more ‘hands on’ help, why not sign up for free to get access to lots of extra practical tools to help with stress and irritability, including my mini series on Yoga for Stress?