Why and How Do Little Annoyances Add Up?
They might not be much by themselves, but altogether they’re something.
I live in an apartment. It’s an amazing home for my wife, cats, and me. We each have our own office space, shared bedroom, decent-sized kitchen, and a small deck. The apartment is on the second floor of a three-floor unit, and in the winter we get sufficient heat from the neighbors around us that we’ve never had to run heaters during the winter.
The neighbors below us have a mostly quiet dog, though sometimes she’ll get barky. The neighbors above us mostly keep to themselves, except the teenage girl – whose room is above my office – sometimes plays her music too loud and has had a temper tantrum or three that I was unfortunately privy to.
While writing full-time, I also have a couple of part-time jobs to help pay bills, do my book editing, and cover art. I work for two amazing entrepreneurs. They operate very differently from one another. Sometimes their expectations of me and their need for my time can be a bit overwhelming.
I love my two cats. They play favorites, so for each, one of us serves as the “spare human.” The cat who favors me – Thalia – feels the need to jump on my desk, walk across the keyboard, and sit just adjacent to it while making it hard to type. Then, she insists on having me allow her to climb onto my chest and turn me into a Bond villain. Love the affection, but it can be a bit much.
There are times, though, when these little annoyances add up. When they do, I get a kick to my depression, feel overwhelmed, and get cranky.
Analyzing the annoyances
For the most part, I have very little control over these. I can’t do anything about the neighbors above and below me. Because of the nature of my jobs, sporadic occurrences of work will happen. If you have a cat or dog, you know the challenge of moving them when they’re being demanding. We love them and their affection, even when it’s a bit much. This makes pushing the animal away undesirable.
Each annoyance, by itself, is nothing. I can ignore the kid upstairs, the dog only goes off on occasion, and the cat will go away if I ignore her or nudge her gently. When a couple of these occur at the same time, however, that can become a problem.
Overwhelm can take many forms. Sometimes it’s purely intangible, other times it’s much more literal. It can also be nearly impossible to see it, let alone stop it before it hits you.
So, those little annoyances might in and of themselves be nothing. Yet as soon as they start to add together, they can add up to overwhelm.
What is overwhelm?
Overwhelm can take a few different forms. Sometimes it’s fairly literal. You have a deadline to meet at the same time as a proposal being due at the same time as an activity you’re expected to attend at the same time you’ve set aside for meditation and, and, and…
That can get incredibly overwhelming. All those things by themselves are no problem. One atop another on top of another? That can quickly add up to be overwhelming. That can take the form of feeling crushed, getting easily perturbed, feeling frustrated, getting angry, feeling sad, and more. How overwhelm presents itself varies from person to person and circumstance to circumstance.
Sometimes overwhelm is more intangible. Thinking about this, remembering that, planning for the other thing, while feeling the beat of the bass from music that’s too loud, all while trying to focus on a project, can overwhelm you just as easily and in the same way as the literal matters.
Overwhelm, no matter its cause, tends to be a sense of too much. Too many demands on your time and your person. More expectations than you can fully wrap your head around. Too many distractions or little annoyances.
Each, alone, is no big deal. All added together, now you struggle. What can you do about this? Step one is mindfulness.
Be mindful of the annoyances, great or small
I would suspect that you can name a few things that are big and annoying. These annoyances are probably less directly impactful on you and your life – but nonetheless annoying. Politics is a perfect example of this.
The little annoyances, however, tend to get ignored. They’re not just small but often fleeting. Yet when you are not mindful of them, they can add up.
How does this work? First, you need to be consciously aware of yourself. Who, what, where, how, and why you are. This is, however, relatively easy, as it comes from recognizing what’s happening within your head, heart, and soul.
This recognition comes from knowing what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, what you’re intending, your general current approach to life – positive or negative – and what you are or aren’t doing. That makes you consciously aware and present in the here and now. That’s mindfulness in action.
When you’re more mindful of yourself it’s easier to be mindful of outside influences. Since all annoyances, big or small, are triggered by things without, they’re automatically outside influences.
However, they are tied to inner thoughts and feelings. For example, if work has you feeling stressed, that annoying music from the obnoxious neighbor can amplify from a little annoyance to a big one. The thing is, it has little to nothing to do with the thing happening. The annoyance is born of overwhelm, and that begins within.
Mindfulness is the key to identifying this. Once you do that, now you can figure out what you can do to deal with it.
How do you deal?
There is no single answer to this question. Dealing will differ from person to person. There are many different options, and I share a few here.
You can step away. Take a break. Move away from where you are to somewhere else. Even for just a few minutes, step away.
You can meditate. Or take a couple of minutes to just do deep breathing. Clear your mind and move past whatever is going on.
You can go exercise. Take a walk. Do some stretching. Go for a run. Head into nature. Get your blood flowing and your heart pumping.
You can journal. This looks rather familiar. When you’re flustered, dealing with annoyances, or whatever, journaling and writing it out can be incredibly cathartic.
There are lots of other ways and means available. This, however, should be a sufficient example to get you started.
Why and how do the little annoyances add up? Because everything, good or bad, no matter what it is, starts small. Little annoyances piled atop one another, without being put in check, can easily add up to a big annoyance.
You have the power, however, to change your situation. Be empowered and act in some way to cope with the little annoyances however best that works for you, to prevent them from becoming major annoyances.
Can you see why and how little annoyances add up in your life?
This is the six-hundred and thirty-third (633) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
Follow me here!
