One thing I have learned about myself is that I am prone to anger. I thank God for the awareness and growth He has blessed me with in this area, yet, I still have progress to make. This post is for you, if you need help managing anger and frustration. I pray that it provides you with insight into your triggers, as well as provides you practical tips that will assist you in handling frustration the right way.
Handling Frustration the Right Way: 5 Tips
1. Don’t lash out.
The first tip to handling frustration the right way, is to not lash out. Lashing out is so easy to do, yet, it is so damaging. Though we feel frustrated, we must work hard at managing it. This is the point of the post. We will feel frustrated, but we must grow in handling frustration the right way. The first step is not allowing it to overtake you, which leads to explosions. We must grow in the awareness of our frustration. As we do, we can feel it coming on and know that is our cue to hold it together and not lash out.
2. Stay quiet.
As we use our energies to hold it together and not lash out, we must stay quiet. This is key because when we feel frustrated our words are likely to be harsh words, motivated by frustration, not of love. We know that our words are to be edifying and encouraging [Ephesians 4:29], so if we are not able to speak loving, kind, and edifying words, let us stay quiet until we can.
3. Step away.
I know this may not always be possible, but when we can, we ought to to do it. When we feel frustration rising within us, we need to step away and get it together. This could be a step into the bathroom to calm down, it may be a walk around the block, it may be laying down for a few minutes. Whatever we can do at the moment, we need to do it and allow ourselves a moment to get it together. This is one of the reasons I love early morning rising so much. It gives me that step away time to get myself together, providing me with a rich opportunity for expression to God, without interruption.
4. Figure it out.
This is so important because we are feeling frustrated for a reason. We need to figure out the reason and deal with it. Sometimes it can be easy to misdiagnose our frustration. We may think it’s because of a person or a situation, but often there is another root or heart issue that is causing the frustration. For instance, you may feel frustrated at your kids because of their actions, but if you take the time to really step away and pray, God may reveal heart issues within you that are leading to the frustration.
Kids will be kids, but we must mature and grow in responding to them well, out of love. For instance, the frustration could be due to a lack of boundaries and routines in place. Or, maybe we need effective consequences in place. As we grow in those areas, we will feel less frustration, allowing us to parent in love, not frustration.
5. Take action.
Lastly, we must take action. Once we’ve walked through the first 4 tips, we should be in a position to do something. Yesterday, I was feeling frustration because I felt overwhelmed by my workload. I’ve personally walked through these tips between last night and this morning, and I’m now ready to work. For me, early rising is key to handling frustration the right way. It allows me the space to deal with me, get my thoughts together, and plan my work; which all tends to feel impossible during the day with the constant noise and activity.
I pray that this post has granted you insight into your frustrations, and provided you with tips that will help with handling your frustrations the right way. Frustration itself isn’t bad. Actually, it can be very motivating. Once we respond to it properly, it can alert us of opportunities to do better, and provide us the motivation to do it.
The goal must be to alleviate the frustration, the right way. As we do, I believe we will begin to see change in our lives that provides us with more peace, love, and joy.
