Wisdom Wednesday 1 - Understanding The Inner Cause Of Anger

Check out this video... my first ever Wisdom Wednesday Live Video. Looking forward to doing many more. In this program we talked about the energy experience of anger, the dangers of anger, and understanding its cause. 

I also gave some homework for those who are serious about mastering anger in their lives. You can also read some of my notes in this blog post. 

Areas of our life where we express anger...

There are many different areas of life where our anger may be a cause for suffering. Remember that we are concerned with the expression of unconscious and uncontrolled anger in our being. 

These are some of the different situations that my students have shared with me and that I have seen in my own life.

• Situations at work
• Interactions with family
• Injustice 
• Road rage
• Self-directed anger

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The dangers of anger

Anger can be very destructive. That is one of the reasons it must be managed well. 

Risk to our health
This one is obvious. Anger puts heavy stress on the body. It affects the heart, the organs, the brain. Chronic uncontrolled anger can contribute towards heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, and many other health challenges. 

Damage to relationships
When we cannot manage our anger we may act out. Sometimes we may say and do things that we later regret. Of course this can damage our interpersonal relationships. 

Affects our mental ability
This one is less well known. Because of the stress that anger places on our body, our mind is affected. In yoga is well understood that anger  negatively influences our awareness and intellect. 

Karma
Remember that every energy we express is projected into the universe. That energy always has an impact and then it is returned to us in some form. So remember that the energy you put it is coming back to you in some way. 

All of these are ways in which anger can cause suffering in our lives. Certainly there may be others you can see in your own life. This just gives us more motivation to bring our anger under conscious control. 

Learn to see anger as energy

The first thing I want to talk to you all about understanding your anger is to learn to see it as a kind of energy.

There is an anger energy. When we are in an angry mode… that angry energy is flowing through the mind and body.
That energy tends to make us feel very powerful, almost dangerous.

And because of the nature of the energy it also influences other people and can influence their behavior.
That can be a very addictive feeling.

Because in so many areas of our lives we feel powerless. So having this angry feeling gives us a back a sense of power and control.

We can begin using this energy to change our others interact with us (because we don’t know how to deal with them in a better way).

So we have to recognize there might be a tendency to use anger unconsciously (or perhaps even consciously) like a threat or a weapon or as a power that we can have over others.

The addictive nature of the energy, and remember I said earlier… that anger affects our mental ability… we actually become less conscious of things in and around us…

It can be a pattern of escapism to avoid what is really happening in our lives.
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All of this is the play of that anger energy… that is what comes with anger. 
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Try to see the bigger picture of anger

If we want to learn to manage our anger then we need to become more conscious. That means learning to see the bigger picture of anger. 

You really need to reflect on the experiences of anger you have had in the past, and perhaps continue to have. In that reflection try to examine the experience. You may see how you feel with this energy flowing through you. 

Perhaps you might even see a pattern of how you use anger to control others or to avoid seeing the truth in yourself. 

There has to be a sense of honesty. That I want to see what is going on within me so that I can understand anger and escape the suffering it is causing me. 
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The inner cause

By becoming more conscious we really know where we stand. That we want to master this energy.
We are ready to understand the CAUSE… the inner cause of anger in our lives.
This is the secret here… it’s very simple and very powerful. Listen to it carefully.
 
The cause of anger is unmet expectations.

 We subtly have an idea of what we want the world to look like, be like, what we want our experience to be like…
But the world may not align with what is in our mental picture. When it does not align… we become angry.

We want the world to CONFORM to how we are seeing it.

When it does not conform then we become angry.
 
What does this mean? It does not mean that we should not have expectations! That would be ridiculous… we may have some ideals, some goals, some vision that we hold for ourselves and our world.

But we have to realize and understand that what we hold in our minds… may not match with what the world is showing us.

We have to hold the expectation or vision loosely… ready to let it evolve and adapt to guide our life.
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Your action plan (homework!)

Following what we have discussed here are a few things you can work on. 

1. Become more conscious of the play of anger energy in your life. 
2. Observe how you use that energy, what patterns are involved in that use of anger. 
3. Examine the cause. Whenever you become angry ask yourself "what were my expectations?"
4. Dig deeper and try to understand what that mind-image or expectation says about you personally. 
5. Acknowledge that what I expect and see in my mind does not have to line up perfectly with what I see outside. 

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Next week

Next week we will be exploring the purpose of anger. Why do we even have anger energy available for us? What purpose does it serve? 

When we understand the spiritual role that anger is performing in our lives then we will know where anger is appropriate in our life.