Emotions are just information for us to tell us how we're doing with ourselves and others. What actions we take are pretty much all there is, all others can see. We take our feelings and thoughts and hopefully come up with an action that moves us forward.

I think one can translate any emotion into a "good" action. If we're bored, sure it feels like we "fight" it when we find something to do but that sounds like what you are talking about your doing with irritability and I know it works really well with anger; to figure out what one feels is threatened, is angry about, and how to fix that, works the same with anxiety for me.