One of the things that sometimes trigger irritation in me (when the I-Other split is already primed) is people blindly acting from contraction… people who are tense, wound-up, seem hunted or haunted by something, and are blindly caught up in it, blind to what is happening.
(This is obviously a shadow-projection. At the very moment I see them as blindly tense, I am describing myself as I am right there and then.)
And as usual, there are some valuable gifts in here…
When I am blindly tense (which includes seeing it in others and being bothered by it), it is an invitation for me to more clearly see what is going on. The discomfort in it nudges me to do something about it, and the only way that really works, in the long run, is to investigate my own reactions… to identify and explore the beliefs behind it, be with whatever comes up in an heart-felt way, tracking the process behind it, and so on.
So again, what seems like an annoyance when I don’t notice it as an invitation, becomes a great gift when I do.
It leads me right to my own blind spots, inviting me to see more clearly what I previously was oblivious to.