Adulting is hard

I watched myself get seized by frustration. There was a stern conversation about allowing this emotion to rule. 

I reached into my personal bag of emotional resources and pulled out determination, an emotion I know well.

When determination rules, so does my endurance. Frustration is a lesser child of mine in the face of determination.

Afterwards, I replayed the battle. 

My frustration was not from one thing. It was a series of smaller fears and doubts about one million things that were lurking, like residue, in my emotional ecology.

Looking for their moment to take centre stage.

Loose ends and the unspoken. Wanting to find oxygen. 

They always do, and usually when they are least wanted. There they are.

I think about this. About how we can be affected by others reaching this same stage of boil. The bubbles of accumulated fears, frustration, doubts, and tangled unspoken words mashed up then breaking the banks of containment. 

Knowing this about others and ourselves, wisdom might say we create deliberate outlets to discharge. And when the dam wall breaks for others, we provide a field of containment for them.

Of course, doing this is not easy.

Adulting is hard. 

Photo Taken January 21st 2024