I have long tried to control my feelings. It took me years of guided meditation, breathing techniques and yoga. Not bad.
However, I have come to believe that not all feelings should be controlled as in pacified. I think that one particular feeling, anger for a number of reasons from injustice in the world to specific behaviors is not as bad as we might think. The obvious reaction is to either beat yourself up for being nasty or go ahead and forgive and forget to save you some peace of mind.
What I now think though, is that we shoud instead stay with the feeling, live with it, taste it, and then chanel it in a creative way. That could take various forms, depending on the issue.
If you are angry about what happens to the environment then you should join an organisation combating senseless and selfish decisions by governments and industrialists.
If someone hurts your feelings about your self value, then you should use this as a boost to expand your value and ability.
No evil is free from good, as the Greeks used to say...
2 comments:
Interesting topic. According to What You Can Change . . . and What You Can't anger can help you seek justice and motivate you to take action.
However the author also believes that anger can lead to high blood pressure and heart attacks.
I beieve that most outbursts of temper are unhealthy and only push you to experience more negative emotions. If you can take an emotionally intelligent approach (similar to that you advocate) of experiencing the emotion, seeking to understand and learn from it and then act in a calm and clear way that anger can help you identify important emotions and situations that require resolution.
FYI you might be interested in this research on anger
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