Entitlement is the fear of frustration

Sometimes, you may experience a sense of entitlement. That means believing that you deserve something, for some or no reason. Entitlement has a charged-up, anger-driven energy to it in its pure form. It arises when there is an expectation gap between how you wish you felt and how you actually feel in the moment.

Dr. Becky Kennedy posits that entitlement is the fear of frustration. It arises when we can’t sit with frustration long enough with equanimity (a sense of focused calmness). Frustration arises from the gap between your expectation for what should happen, and what happens.

This can stem from a personal challenge where you don’t live up to your expectations and you feel a sense of inadequacy about it. Or from situations that involve other people and your expectations about them.

In truth, you can train your frustration and learn to sit with it like with any other emotion. Therefore dropping all the “shoulds” manufactured by your mind and descending into full acceptance and full internalization of your momentary somatic experience.

This concept can be especially powerful for children because they can easily learn to accept and sit with frustration thanks to their heightened ability for neuroplasticity (brain adaptations).

It can be especially important because chances are, one of your fundamental frustrations in life lies in your seeming inability to reduce unsatisfactoriness and live in a state of tranquility for prolonged periods. And one truth is that you can master your emotions and practice fully accepting them to develop an inner, strong sense of mastery.