Where do you put your anger?

You can bottle up your anger, but you’ll have to face it some time. Why not do something about it now?  Here’s how.

Ease the cork off.

Your anger is currently under pressure. That’s because you haven’t been giving it enough air, probably for these and other reasons. You:

• are afraid of your angry feelings.
• don’t think expressing it would do any good.
• have had bad experiences with anger before.

So begin slowly, to let off some steam and become comfortable with why you’re upset, so you can express this feeling in a way that is helpful and not hurtful.

Anger can be good.

Anger is a natural feeling. In many ways, it’s helpful. For one thing, it focuses your mind like nothing else can do. If you’ve ever been in a fight when you were angry, you know how it helps you get your laser focus.

But where is that focus going? If you harness the focusing power of this feeling, it can actually help you. But if you lose control of that focus, anger can be very destructive (as you know), and cause harm you never intended.

Harness the power.

Listen to your anger. It’s trying to tell you something important. Something is unjust; or something is blocking your way (what are my goals, anyway?); something or someone is threatening harm. Anger is there to sound the alarm.

Channel the energy. Once you have listened to your anger and you know why you are mad, choose what you are going to do about why this powerful feeling is there in the first place.

Change the game. When you listen to your anger and channel it productively, you realize that it’s there for a reason, and can give you the focused energy you want to help you through a difficult situation. This awareness is a game changer.

It’s possible.

All this talk about channeling your anger may sound like pie-in-the-sky; naive. But it is actually possible to do.

Awareness and slow release is the key. If you will begin today to listen to your anger, so it doesn’t get all bottled up by lack of expression, and then realize it’s there for your benefit, you can begin to harness the power of your anger. 

Start here.

Please listen to this brief talk (about 13 minutes) by Ryan Martin, and then come right back for today’s takeaway.

The takeaway:

Anger is good when understood and harnessed. Listen to your anger, then make a plan to do some good with what you hear.

Read more.

I can help you listen to your anger and channel it productively.