Wednesday, December 6, 2023
When you’re frustrated with another, it’s easy to think that something is wrong with them. While that might be true at one level, the frustration is a signal that something is wrong with you, and you don’t see it yet. People serve as mirrors. They are reflecting back to you the ways that you are holding yourself back from your own growth potential and insight for understanding.
Fear works in a similar fashion. We want to avoid what scares us and dismiss who frustrates us. We’ve got this all wrong. Fear also serves as a signal of how we hold ourselves back from growth. Living is for growing, and the fear of making a major life change is a signal of how to move forward in growth. You grow towards your fears, not away from them. Comfort, predictability, and routine do not signal growth, but stagnation. Fear is a signal that your life lacks dynamism. To wake up, move towards the dynamics and feel alive again.
What you “should” do with someone you’re frustrated with is use them as a personal teacher. In other words, turn them into a friend, but subversively. Let their frustrating ways show you how you can grow out of your own frustrating ways. There’s a reason why you notice anyone’s frustrating characteristics, and it isn’t to point your finger at them and chastise them. It’s to show you how you’re holding yourself back from greater things. Don’t waste the lessons!
Likewise, subversively turn fear into a friend. When you are afraid, the initial response is to flee. But use fear as a teacher of how to move forward – towards it. The universe intimately hides your best life in fear and in situations and people who you wish to dismiss and avoid. Look in the least obvious places, go within, and you’ll find your greatest treasures right in front of your very nose.