When I was in my late teens/ early twenties I loved the band, Rage Against the Machine.

If you played their track Freedom very loud, part way through the track the music would pause and quietly you could hear- Anger Is a Gift. The music would start again.

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What is anger?

Anger is a natural response to feeling attacked, deceived, frustrated or treated unfairly. Everyone gets angry sometimes – it’s part of being human. It isn’t always a ‘bad’ emotion; in fact it can sometimes be useful. For example, feeling angry about something can:

• help us identify problems or things that are hurting us
• motivate us to create change
• help us defend ourselves in dangerous situations by giving us a burst of energy

When is anger a problem?

Anger only becomes a problem when it harms you or people around you. This can happen when:

• you regularly express your anger through unhelpful or destructive behaviour
• your anger is having a negative impact on your overall mental and physical health

Taken from http://www.mind.org.uk/

 

As it says above, anger is not always negative. It can help us leave negative situations such as an abusive relationship.

While in normal circumstances it is better not to make decisions while angry as it could be later considered a knee jerk reaction.

Compared to depression, anger is full of energy but this should be a temporary emotion.

Recently I have felt like I have been releasing repressed anger. This maybe evident from my taste of music – I was very angry in my late teens and early twenties. Long term anger is not healthy. It felt stuck within my body.

The statement from above, “help us defend ourselves in dangerous situations by giving us a burst of energy” is very much making anger part of the fight or flight response.

As primitive people if we faced a fight or flight situation whichever action was taken the end result would be breathlessness!

If we ran, we would run till our lungs burnt.

If we fought, we would fight till the last breath.

Nowadays when we face a situation that causes a fight or flight reaction, very rarely do we end up running or fighting. Maybe a few heated words?

So what should we do?

Breathe!

Acknowledge and accept these emotions and breathe.

Exercise, sing and even scream! Do whatever you can to get your breath rate up and breathe out that anger. Let the calm return.

Mark- The Alchemist’s Journey