What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

I've always balked at this platitude. Maybe we aren't supposed to be bothered, even tortured by these situations or people that are trying to "kill us". And then I became Buddhist and found out the world puts us right up against whatever it is we need to be working with at that moment.

The next time you're being pushed to your limit; stop, breathe, look around and sit with yourself for a moment or a hundred moments or a thousand if you have the time. What is it that's threatening you and why? Identify the what, then the why. That will help you get to the next steps of relaxing and accepting. (If a bear is charging feel free to know the why and do the right thing for survival, but this is for all of the day-to-day situations that push our buttons.)

When staying with the discomfort becomes the path we are able to thank the person or situation for the opportunity to grow. After having some success you will be all the more ready to face what life puts in your path. Interestingly, life will put the same situations in front of you until you "get it" and move on. Personal growth is very exciting. We are never "the same" so why not make the growth and the difference something to be relished - even celebrated.

What irritates the hell out of us can either continue to irritate the hell out of us or help us grow. It's your choice.