Feeling Good about Anger

As I watched a ‘feel-good’ segment on one of the morning shows that suggested everyone could benefit from actively using more kindness in our daily activities, I found myself torn between two perspectives.

On the one hand, I absolutely believe the world could use more kindness, but on the other hand I felt myself getting agitated over the fact that there is no healthy or constructive discussion on the issue of anger.

We should be talking about why we are caring around so much anger, which may be why we are not expressing more kindness.

It seems that nobody really likes anger and is considered wrong to have it, especially for women. The problem with this attitude is that everybody has anger, but they don’t know what to do with it, so we stuff it down, we repress it and hold it within our energy field.

The more we repress it, the more it builds up until we can’t hold it down any longer and we suddenly unload over some small issue. Then we feel bad that we over-reacted and get pissed at ourselves for losing control and we start the stuff your anger cycle all over again. 

Often, we believe that some external situation is causing our anger to generate and we blame that thing outside ourselves instead of addressing the real cause.

According to esoteric teachings, anger is just a motivational energy and not a bad thing at all. In fact, anger is considered to be a very useful energy due to its intensity. The problem is that we are not using anger in a constructive way.

Anger is a symptom of our depth of caring. We don’t get angry about things unless we care about them. The hot energy of anger also builds when our needs are not being met or when we feel threatened in some way. The energy of anger is active and is produced so we can take a strong action.

When anger is not utilized or released from our form as it occurs, it can build and turn into an explosive energy, which scares us.

We don’t want to hurt anyone with our anger and as a society we tend to judge anger as a negative which is reasonable given the fact that we tend to misuse anger. However, there is a way to use our anger to make the world a better place.

What’s important to realize is that anger isn’t one thing, it’s a culmination of smaller intensities that lead up to full-blown anger and beyond.

Anger energy usually begins with irritation, moves to agitation, onto annoyance, to aggravation, discomfort, frustration, impatience, indignation, resentment, upset, exasperation, stress, provocation, anger, wrath, fury and rage.

It’s easy to see anger coming if we pay attention to it when it is at a manageable level but ignore the warning signs and soon, we will be lashing out at someone or something around us.

The technique of releasing one’s cache of stored anger is simple and based on the cosmic principle of energy follows thought.

By using our thoughts, we can send or direct that active energy out of the body through the heart center to a cause of your choice: Global warming, animal rights, human rights, hunger, homelessness, world conflicts or we can even send it to our personal projects and improving our community – anything that could use some extra support.

For myself, I don’t typically pick up on the buildup of anger energy until it hits frustration. At that point I have a noticeable heat or warmth in my body, and I can feel it rising as I start to stuff it down, so it doesn’t escalate. That’s where I have my internal alarm system set, and I hear my internal voice say ‘Uh-oh! We’re frustrated and need to send this heat somewhere quick!’

Every week or so, I pick a new cause to send my anger energy, so I don’t have to think about it in the moment, and I direct that hot sensation to my heart to release into the ethers to that cause.

This may sound too easy, but I would highly recommend trying it for yourself to see if you can notice a difference not only in the moment, but over time as well.

What I have noticed is that most of the time, the hot sensation dissipates within a few minutes, and the irritation levels calm down. It works best if I acknowledge in my mind or out loud that I am frustrated with the situation because I care.

Repression of what we consider to be negative emotions is habitual in the human condition, and it is our responsibility to manage the flows of energy within our form. Anger is a particularly destructive force if held within our energy field, so it is the most important one to release as soon as we detect its presence.

With time, the process will begin releasing more and more of the stored surplus, taking that internal pressure off the body so it feels better.  Anger doesn't have to be a bad thing, it's just an energy and we can use it for betterment.

This process does take effort and a bit of commitment, but I believe that anyone who practices releasing these hot energies will naturally feel better and make room to practice and enjoy more acts of kindness.