5 Things You Need To Do To Stop Being Irritable  

Everyone is irritable on occasion. However, if you’re persistently agitated, your foul mood can start upending your personal and professional life in numerous ways. 

It is common knowledge that people gravitate toward warmer personalities. People also need genuine connections to thrive and stay sane. If your irritability spirals out of control, people will make a concentrated effort to distance themselves from you, and your quality of life will be much poorer for their absence. 

Still, solving these problems can be easier said than done. If you need some tips, then we’ve suggested five things for you to do that can help you stop being so irritable. 

Acknowledge Influences

Few people are inherently irritable. Often, some strong influences evoke these emotional responses from you. 

For instance, some people blamed the coronavirus pandemic for making them a little meaner, factoring in all the associated stress that came with it. While others dispute these claims, only you can identify and acknowledge what is behind your irritability. 

Of course, if the reasons are not immediately clear to you, it is always valid to seek out professional help. Therapists will help you get to the bottom of these issues while helping you maintain your mental well-being simultaneously. 

Regardless of the path that you go down, some detective work could be key to making progress here. Once you know the reasons for your short fuse, you can start addressing each of them.  

Improve Your Sleep Schedule

Some people underestimate the power of their sleep schedule. Such individuals may not even know that they have a problem that needs solving. 

It is commonly believed that one can get by in life on only five hours of sleep a night. However, Rise Science’s guide on sleeping habits interestingly dismantles this assumption. They explain that people often misread the cues of their tiredness and detail all the health and social consequences of sleep deprivation, including increased irritability. Furthermore, Rise Science states that most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep each night to function well the next day. 

As you can see, much about your mood depends on your sleep patterns. Try to get a good night’s sleep in a dark and cool space. Remove electronics from the room and ask anyone else you are living with to be quiet while you turn in. Minimize the chance of being disrupted however possible and enjoy a good night’s rest. When you wake up, you should feel more energized, and hopefully, in a better mood.  

Have Perspective

It is easy to think every problem is all-consuming when all you think about is yourself. However, with a healthy dose of perspective, comparing problems to others can show you that much of what you find bothersome is simply not worth your energy. 

Additionally, it could be helpful to recognize that the ability to cope with life’s curveballs often comes with age too. If you are on the younger side, knowing one day you will look back on your problems and laugh about them, or forget they ever happened entirely, could be a source of comfort to you. 

It is also important to remember that everybody experiences challenges in their life to varying degrees. If you live a tragedy-free existence today, you should be thankful that its only petty grievances are bothering you. While it will not fill you with joy, thinking about all the people who are objectively having a harder time than you might help you not to sweat the small stuff so much. 

Build Empathy

If others irritate you, building your sense of empathy can help mitigate these feelings. It may also prevent conflict too.

Try to remember that empathy can flourish from a place of curiosity and that both traits are powerful tools to have in your social arsenal. Learn about others. Let them know that they are free of judgement in your company. Understand their position in life and value their experiences. If you can establish meaningful connections with people, their shortcomings will not seem quite as brash. 

Being a more empathetic person can also distract from your irritability. After all, in being compassionate toward others, you devote your energy to helping them instead of stewing in your tetchiness. You are removing the negative emotions from your life by actively choosing positivity and common ground. 

Favors can be returned here too. If those you have helped can see that a situation is bothering you, they will likely offer the same level of care you originally provided them. If you are at risk of becoming exasperated in the future, these situations will not be as invasive with a support network in tow. 

Enjoy Alone Time

Some societal pressures demand you to be social all the time. Even if you are physically alone, you may still feel compelled to check in with people via text and social media. 

Instead, try to simply enjoy the time you get to yourself. Take up a hobby, watch your favourite movie, read a book – do activities that anyone can enjoy in solitude. You could focus on mindfulness as well, partaking in things like meditation, yoga, or listening to well-being podcasts. 

Take the time to slow your life down. Acknowledge that you do not need to be doing something thrilling or exciting every moment. If you can set realistic expectations of your daily life, you may find yourself becoming far less irritable when your plans do not work out the way you envisioned them to. 

Do not hesitate to turn social invites down either. True friends and loved ones will happily reschedule for another time if you need some ‘me’ time, especially if they are spared your irritable mood that day. 

Conclusion

Being irritable is almost trendy these days. You only need to look at your Twitter feed to see people competing for likes by complaining about something trivial. Try to distance yourself from that negative energy as much as possible. Using the tips outlined above, you should find yourself in a better position to appreciate the positives of life without sweating the small stuff. In the end, so long as you look after yourself, everything else will fall into place soon after.