Own Your Anger - Grasshopper

Here’s a major problem with anger: we don’t take ownership of it.

Everybody gets angry from to time to time, but some experience it more often than not.

And it doesn’t dissipate easily for the perpetually angry, because they don’t own it. They ascribe it to someone or something outside themselves, and don’t recognize they have the deed.

In order for the sensation we call anger to wain, we have to stop using this refrain: “I’m angry because.” Remove the word because and just acknowledge you’re angry, period.

Own the sensations that are in your body associated with an angry state. It’s your anger. It doesn’t belong to anyone else. You’re the sole proprietor.

Owning your anger means to feel it in your body. Find out where it lives and give your full attention to that bodily sensation. This doesn’t mean to talk to yourself about it, just feel it. Sit with the sensation you call anger. That’s owning it.

Some people go and do something active to suspend their anger, like exercise. After their endorphin high, the anger returns. It’s a temporary fix. But you learn something about anger by being active: namely, when you’re into your body, you’re not in your head.

Your thoughts and justification feed the sensation of anger in your body. The more often you’re thinking and talking about it, the more anger you have.

When you just sit quietly and feel the sensations of anger in your body, transmutation occurs. That means the sensations dilute and disappear and take a longer time to reappear.

The real benefit is this: the more often you own your anger, the less it comes around. Instead of being an angry mess, you start to feel it less and less.

All the best,