Anyone can get it

On how pent up energy comes out in unexpected ways.

Sometimes when a person over reacts it’s because they’ve got built up frustration or anger and this particular situation has been the breaking point.

All of a sudden you’re losing your cool over ‘spilt milk’ and sometimes in the moment you don’t even know why you’re so mad.

In hindsight you know that ‘spilt milk’ wasn’t worth shouting about but you did it anyway.

And to everyone around you, you just overreacted or lost your temper because they don’t know about everything that led to that moment.

It might even change how they are around you, because when you’re around anyone can get it and nobody wants to be anyone.

So if you care enough you might want to learn to address things in the moment instead of letting them fester.

That way your response to ‘spilt milk’ will be about the ‘spilt milk’ not because your colleague was rude, someone lied to you and that family member keeps asking you for money.

Take a moment

A reaction rooted in anger is one you’re likely to regret.

Anything that builds up has to have a release eventually. And if you’ve tried to release or resolve it to no avail then it’s important that you do find a way.

Bursts of anger and outrage often come unexpectedly and end up being directed at the wrong person.

This is why it’s important to nip things in the bud instead of leaving ‘bad’ feelings to flourish.

But if nipping things in the bud isn’t something you’re comfortable with yet, it’ll be important to know when you need to take a moment because that anger will come up at some point.

The push-back

Because every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

I’ve been using the term push-back for a while. I use it to refer to how we react to negative/un-ideal circumstances.

But not any reaction just the specific ones often done when our emotions are heightened and we’re angry or frustrated.

Imagine you’re a kid and you’re parents refuse to give you the freedom you desire. It’s quite likely that you’ll be annoyed and find some way (even if it’s small) to rebel.
Maybe that’s always coming home late or creating a secret life for yourself like haha I’ll show you.

Or as an adult maybe you have lots of goals and plans and someone tells you to slow down or that you’re doing too much. If that’s not what you’re happy to hear you might end up just doubling down on all your stuff and possibly burning out. That’s a form of pushing back.

However, there are other ways that you can choose to handle or manage situations. For example, you’re trying to get your book published you get 101 rejections so you decide to self publish.

It’s a reaction to an un-ideal situation but it isn’t out of anger or frustration. A push-back could have been getting rid of your book or replying to the rejections in anger and frustration. But you have to think about what’s actually helpful.

It might feel good to push-back but it might be more helpful to think about what the kindest and most helpful thing you can do for yourself to overcome the situation is.