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Well, that sounds nice in the abstract, but I can relax when I notice that I'm worked up on something. I understand the philosophical point you're making, but it's an abstract, philosophical, existential stress that you're talking about, not everyday stress. Simply the non-enlightened state of mind, caring about distinctions etc. And then you go on explaining how you can't rationalize yourself out of that state-of-mi…
>I understand the philosophical point you're making, but it's an abstract, philosophical, existential stress that you're talking about, not everyday stress. Sorry, maybe I was trying to be too clever. Basically I agree with you. Breathing and counting to ten are perfectly fine ways of dispelling stress. Breathing deeply counteracts the sympathetic response to stress, counting is a way of waiting it out, allowing the…
Or maybe not. Maybe you can do self-suggestion. I certainly know people who can easily dig themselves into hole of fury, getting angry at someone (not present), making assumptions, getting more angry at them, imagining further nastiness about that person etc. If you can make yourself more frustrated, perhaps you can also make yourself less frustrated. Whatever.
I think that worrying and analyzing this very topic (whether you can "try to X") too extensively is not terribly useful either. It's a bit like ivory tower programmers who read all sorts of Agile books, Clean Code, The Mythical Man-Month etc. without actually spending lots of time writing code. One can do lots of philosophical back and forth based on principles, but in the end it comes down to actions.
If you think you can't try to relax, you probably also won't be able to. Or maybe yes. There are limitations to what can happen in the brain, but there is too much self-referencing going on when talking about chainging one's own conscious state. It usually leads into a lot of bunk, new age whatever magic stuff.
Anyways, one way to get rid of frustration is to not worry about ways to get rid of frustration. Including this one.
You have to do it quick enough so that your consciousness doesn't jump in and say "but I can't try to follow this advice either". You have to let the advice act on you. "But I can't try to let anything" :D But then a point comes when you notice that it just happened. The best summary is to "let things be", while knowing that letting or not letting it is bullshit, there are no permissions involved in this type of thing anyway. (Seems like I couldn't resist to spill out some text like this. I think there is some value in thinking about this, but not too much and definitely not if done too deeply and seriously.)