Interdisciplinary Psychology:

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When I was in first grade I got into trouble. This wasn’t the typical trouble first graders get into either. I didn’t steal one of my classmate’s markers and then refuse to give it back, I didn’t tease some until they started crying, and I didn’t refuse to wear my coat out when it was cold (why do kids do that?). No, instead I punched my hand through a glass window in my classroom. From what I remember (or what was explained to me) a class mate of my was taunting me with one of  “I know you are but what am I” gags kids tend to run on each other when finally I snapped. As far as I know this was the first time I displayed what I now know is my extreme lack of resilience when dealing with life’s typical frustrations.

            I wanted to start this response with that story to illustrate why when I found out one of the books we were reading was titled The Resilience Factor I thought to myself “well, that should be good for me.” My whole life I have struggled with finding constructive ways to deal with the abnormal amount of frustration I seem to experience on a daily bases. The way this problem works for me for as long as I have been aware of it is as follows: Little things (someone cuts me off while driving ect.) throughout a day will bother me, but I let them go and don’t react. Rather then forget these instances the frustration they cause me seems to get stored up somewhere inside. After about week or so, one of life’s little instances will occur and rather then let it go I lose it.

            Ever since I was old enough to realize that this problem I have was something that needed fixing I’ve tried most everything in my power to prevent myself from having these episodes. Throughout my life I’ve had up’s and down’s with trying to keep control over my self when I would feel like I was about to freak out. There have been times when I think I’ve finally mastered the problem. I’ll go for months with out having an episode but then sure enough right when I feel like I never have to worry about it happening again something will set me off and I fall right back into my old pattern.  

            The reason I’m sharing all this unpleasant embarrassing information about myself is because unlike the other two book we read (which were nice) this book has actually taught my skills I was previously unaware of that have been making a big difference in my life. For example: The other day I was taking out the garbage and the bag broke which ment that the glass jar full of bacon grease that was in said bag cracked releasing old grease all over the floor along with the rest of the trash. This is the kind of thing I would normally explode over, but thanks to my recent reading I was able to keep clam. I was able to stop, breath, and as cheese as it might sound I was able to do my ABC. I was able to talk myself down by saying “the reason I’m upset is because I have a belief that the garbage bag shouldn’t have broke. For some silly reason I feel personally wronged by the broken bag and the inconvenience it has now caused me. I am so mad right now because I had an expectation that the bag would not break rather then a preference and that is my own fault not the garbage bags.” As I said before it might sound cheese in theory but in practice it seems to be working wonders.

            I plan to adopt the skills from this book into all aspects of my life. So far I have had the chance to implement them quite a few times in my job, my relationship, and in my daily encounters with the obstacles life has chosen to throw my way. I can’t thank Mark enough for assigning this book and I sincerely hope others are experiencing the same benefit from it I have from reading it.  

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