If someone is said to lose their temper, it normally refers to someone getting angry.

The word, temper means-

Noun

• person’s state of mind seen in terms of their being angry or calm.
• the degree of hardness and elasticity in steel or other metal.

Verb

• improve the hardness and elasticity of (steel or other metal) by reheating and then cooling it.
• act as a neutralizing or counterbalancing force to (something).
• “their idealism is tempered with realism” synonyms include: moderate, modify, modulate

Could losing your temper actually mean losing the ability to moderate ones emotions?

Anger is an interesting emotion. It is considered a negative emotion that can lead to violence and destruction but is anger such a bad emotion?

I consider anger a masculine emotion. It is direct and to the point. Anger is an emotion of action. It is a reaction to something that has caused us upset. Anger enables us to move forward. It causes change.

Anger is a symptom of another issue but often we think the anger is the issue.

A few years back someone told me how they felt relief that a councillor had said that they were not angry but frustrated. In my eyes frustration is just un-empowered anger. Anger is a powerful emotion!

Because anger is so powerful, we cannot readily express this emotion. People do not want to deal with someone who is angry.

We try to temper our anger!

We try to suppress our anger.

We try to be rid of this emotion.

We believe it is an ugly emotion and not an emotion we wish to embrace. This is especially true for people on a spiritual journey. Sometimes spiritual people can have poor boundaries and let others walk all over them. They just want to be agreeable and avoid confrontation. This can be seen as being weak by other people!

If we suppress our anger and try to accept a situation are we preventing action? By preventing action are we resisting change?

What if part of our spiritual journey is to master anger? Should we learn to control this fire in our belly? We could harness this primal force for good.

How can we learn to master or even transcend anger if we don’t get angry or have the situations that can cause us to get angry?

Anger is often associated with fire. An example already mentioned is when someone has fire in their belly. What should we do if this fire starts to rage out of control? Let off some steam?

Temper this raging fire! In my first blog- Anger is a Gift I wrote- “Exercise, sing and even scream! Do whatever you can to get your breath rate up and breathe out that anger. Let the calm return.”

However you chose to vent anger, you are taking responsibility.

By taking responsibility of our anger we channel it to create positive change either internally or externally. This change has empowered us. If we are empowered would we ever get angry?

Have we just transcended anger by taking responsibility and empowering ourselves?

Mark- The Alchemist’s Journey