| THOUGHTS ON ANGER |
| ANGER, a subject most people prefer not to discuss and very much ignore. So what is this anger that we are afraid of? It is an emotion and as such is irrational. It has many causes and can cause much harm if misused. We experience anger for a myriad of reasons, Fear being the main one. When we feel threatened it is anger that gets us out of trouble, we think. In a life-threatening situation for instance, it is anger that allows us to physically fight back and survive, from this point of view Anger is good. It is, perhaps, an extreme example to use though. We experience anger in everyday life about everyday things. Someone disagrees with us and we don't know why. We see a colleague participating in bad practice and feel anger, we see something on the news on TV like, rape, murder, famine etc and feel anger. Then what do we do? We redirect that anger towards those who are closest to us, for minor faults that normally don't even warrant thinking or talking about! So how do we go about controlling this anger? Personally, I don't think it's about control, more a stepping back from it and trying to reason it out, find out exactly WHY we are angry. Easier said than done of course! It takes practice and a lot of patience, but most importantly it requires an Awareness that we are angry, and, as anger is somewhat irrational it is quite difficult to begin with. It might be better to think of past times when you have felt angry or conciously think of a global issue that evokes anger and try to deal with that, conciously, first. What I am suggesting is that we look at the underlying reasons for our anger. We are watching a program about seal culling and feel a lot of anger, is it towards the people carrying out the culling and to whom it is normal practice and the way they make their living? Or is it anger towards ourselves that we are so weak and unable to stop the cull and offer appropriate employment to those doing the culling? Anger is the minds way of letting us recognise our weaknesses as well as a defence mechanism. We can use anger as a tool to evolve as human beings by stepping back and looking within when we experience it. We can spot our weaknesses and address them. Remember, every weakness is a potential Strength! We all experience anger at some level, even those whom we feel are Enlightened like Religious Leaders. If we listen carefully to impassioned speeches from the Pope and the Dalai Llama we can detect a low lying anger. The difference is that they have "channelled" that anger into a positive speech empowering people to go out and do something positive about whatever Issue they are addressing. That is what we must do also. I do this exercise when I feel what might become intense anger. I sit as in meditation. I visualize the anger as a large, heavy stone. I then visualize the stone/anger being thrown into a large pond. The effect on the pond is, of course, chaos as it makes a large splash! But out of this chaos comes order, large waves give way to smaller ripples and so on until, finally, the pond once more becomes still, calm and clear. While I am watching the pond I search for answers, if I don't get them, I throw the stone in again. Even if I don't get the full answers I require it still has an amazingly calming effect! Feel free to try it and let me know if it works, or not! |
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