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In a society where anger is seen as unacceptable and people are sent to ‘anger management’ when they appear out of control, it’s difficult for us to see this powerful emotion as anything other than bad.

But is it?

 

Anger is no different to any other emotion. It’s just energy in motion that is triggered when you see or experience something that you react to.

For example, you may see someone being cruel to an animal and feel a surge of anger.

What will you do with that anger?

You can talk about the cruelty and injustice with your friends and create a ‘shit storm’ on social media. Before long, there will be a whole bunch of other people feeling angry too. While you may feel that anger is justified and appropriate, it will have no impact on the situation that triggered the anger. The cruelty has already happened and you’re simply left to deal with the aftermath of the angry energy that’s flooding your body.

And we all know what that feels like!

We can experience headache, heart palpitations and exhaustion when we feel angry. That’s a clear signal that the energy of your anger is impacting your health in harmful ways.

But what if you choose a different response when you feel your anger rise?

Instead of allowing yourself to go ‘down the rabbit hole’ by inflaming your anger with concentrated focus on the cause, you can use your anger to expand your understanding of yourself.

The first thing is to do is to calm the anger so you can breathe and think. Use my belly breathing technique to quickly release the energy of your anger so you can find your balance. 

The second thing to do is to stop for a moment and ask yourself a question.

“Why am I reacting so strongly to this situation?”

Your first answers will probably be about the situation itself and sound like …

 

How dare they do that?

Who do they think they are?

I can’t believe anyone would behave like that!

 

Just let these thoughts come and go.

And ask the question again. Keep asking until you discover what happens within you. What does it do to you?

As you become aware of what your anger feels like and why it’s been triggered so strongly, you can take positive action.

If your anger is about something outside of you (such as cruelty to an animal), take the time to think about what you can do to help. How can you use your energy to improve this situation?

When you focus your energy on being angry about the situation, you are focusing on what you don’t want with powerful intensity. Instead, focus your energy on working toward what you do want.

Your emotions belong to you and they are part of being a human being on this planet. In truth, there are no negative emotions but when you label anger as negative, it will automatically have a negative impact in your life.

Energy in motion (emotion), lets you know what you believe and gives you the opportunity to alter your perspective for greater health and happiness.

Allow anger to flow through you and use it to improve your life in powerful ways.