Simone Weil’s method of dealing with annoyance

These days, when someone annoys me, I take it as a cue to start an investigation. I want to know why I’m annoyed, what triggered it, and how to cease and desist. 

I investigate until it clicks that there isn’t really all that much to be annoyed about. People make mistakes. No one is perfect. This world is not our home. Life is good. Even when I don’t get my way or I do suffer unjustly, life is still good. This realization and my subsequent ability to let go of annoyance is all thanks to my investigative method.

I took the method from a 20th-century philosophy named Simone Weil, who was born into an upper-middle class French family in 1909 with not much to be annoyed about. Still, she managed to get herself worked up.

From annoyance to peace

The interesting thing is that, as her life became more challenging and her suffering increased greatly, she became less annoyed about it all. She became a peaceful contemplative, ever more appreciative of beauty and love.

It seems to me that, in life, we all have opportunities to be annoyed. Some of those opportunities are legit and others not so much. Sometimes, we just like to be annoyed. When we’re in the habit of it, it’s an easy vice to indulge. I know people who are constantly complaining and always on edge. Other people, whose personal circumstances are far more difficult and unfair, never complain. Not even a single word. In the end, we cannot control exterior circumstances. We can only control how we react.

Simone Weil’s method of dealing with annoyance, Aleteia (June 29, 2025)

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