3 October 2022

Today I want to talk you about a type of mood that we all feel from time to time (and some may feel more than others), but which we often try to deny to ourselves or others as having. Today, I want to talk to you about anger.
Anger is a very destructive emotion. Anger makes us make bad decisions and anger is also why we also hold onto conscious or unconscious grudges against other people. You should also never make an important decision when you are angry.
Anger brings you down and you also may say something that you regret later and it probably won’t achieve anything for you anyway. It may also come back to haunt you. When you lose your temper, you quickly damage relationships that may have taken years, even decades, to build up.
Anger is also double-edged. Although it hurts others, it also hurts you, if you hold onto something which festers inside. When the red mist descends, you can’t see properly. I also heard somebody once say that if you allow somebody to make you angry, they ultimately have control over you.
Anger is a loaded weapon, ready to shoot off in any direction with just a slight trigger. It may make you feel good for a moment, but the negative consequences that come from anger always far outweigh any positive feelings that you may get fleetingly as a cathartic release.
Additionally, anger is self-fuelling and feeds on itself. For example, I have noticed people who are angry together also consciously or unconsciously ‘egg each other on’ so that what, for one of them, might have been minor anger (if there is such a thing) then turns into major anger!
Do not get me wrong, it is always very therapeutic to let your emotions out regularly, whether that be laughing or crying or expressing them in some other way. But, as I say, anger can be destructive. You therefore need to try to limit your anger.
Practice being patient, forgiving and accepting. Pause to calm down when you start getting angry, even by doing simple things like counting. Thomas Jefferson, the president of the US, said that when you are angry count to 10 before you speak, but if you are very angry, count to 100!
Finally, it takes a lot of time and self-discipline, but you can often actually channel anger and the energy you get from it into something that you can use in a more constructive way, rather than it just being left to control you and being allowed to be destructive.
So, this week, try not to let yourself get angry, or if you cannot help yourself yet to not get angry, do not allow yourself to hold onto anger or any resentment and also try to then channel it and use it constructively.




