On Anger

I've been thinking a lot about anger.

As an introverted person who tries to be as self-controlled and diplomatic as possible, anger is a tricky subject for me to broach. But I think it's important to talk about it.

This past week, like many weeks lately, has been difficult for me. Many times I've felt anger welling up inside of me for plenty of different reasons. I won't name all of those reasons right now, because that's not the point of this post. Instead, I want to touch on how anger manifests, and why it's important to get a handle on it before it gets a handle on you.

Right off the bat, I want to state that I don't believe that anger is bad. In fact, it's my belief that that kind of thinking is dangerous, perhaps more dangerous than anger itself.

Thinking of anger as objectively bad makes us more likely to suppress it, not giving it an outlet. That anger will come out eventually, though, and it will be destructive.

So no, anger is not bad. Anger is informative. It tells us that something is wrong, although we might not always be right about what that something is, at least not in the heat of the moment.

The thing is, suppressing anger and letting it control your life will both lead to destruction. You risk the implosion of your relationships and stability when you refuse to rein it in, and you risk the deterioration of your own mental and emotional well-being when you swallow it instead of flushing it from your system.

There has to be balance there, wherein we respect ourselves enough to channel our anger in constructive ways.

Our lives, livelihoods, and relationships are far too important to let anger run rampant and trample everything we value. It can be learned from, though, and it can be acted upon in ways that make life better for us all.

When I'm angry, I usually feel better when I stop and breathe. So I'll be breathing throughout this next week. I hope you'll join me.

-D.