The Nature of Anger

Anger is a normal and healthy emotion that people all feel at some point or another, whether it is anger at a loved one over something miniscule, or something that is worthy of anger. It's also normal to feel anger over what you view as an injustice and what you feel is just wrong. But the problem with anger is this- many people let emotions rule them, including and especially anger. People get angry in traffic, in the grocery store, at video games, over something not going together immediately, and react in ways that are not healthy.

In the home I grew up in, my family would lash out in anger. Screaming and fighting constantly, hitting each other, throwing objects, breaking things, and refusing to sit and talk out why they were angry. Anger ruled my household and affected myself and everyone else in the family in negative ways. Things were said in anger and even abuse occurred because of anger of things not going someone's way, and was a show of power. Again, anger is a healthy and normal emotion, but there are ways that you can deal with it that are not so healthy and normal, just as there are ways that are healthy to handle anger.

Many of the major philosophies of the world and the world religions encourage not allowing anger to rule you or to not say words out of anger or to not allow anger to influence your actions towards others. I'm going to go all nerdy for a second and say this, “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” (You have to love Star Wars- especially Yoda. He's awesome!) With this quote, he is not saying all anger, by the way; he is saying that anger that is unjust, anger that is fueled by fear, fueled by any negative emotion. And he is right; they do lead to suffering, if not for

yourself, than for others. Anger often leads to hate, and hate leads to oppression of others or of yourself. This is why many major philosophies and many major religions encourage to try and forgive and to try and find a way to get beyond the anger. It is for yourself as for others.

Keep in mind that I am not saying anger is bad. It's not. But what is bad is allowing your anger to rule you and to affect your life so fully. We are all interconnected and our decisions affect those around us, not just ourselves. Always keep that in mind with your choices, because you do have the freedom to choose, but you and others are not free from the consequences of your actions and decisions.

The nature of anger is tricky. Anger, righteous anger, can be used to do so much good; but anger that is based upon biases or prejudices will lead to so much bad. It is a fine line to walk and one that must be walked carefully. For righteous anger, you must be clear headed and able to differentiate between being angry and disgusted by the actions of a person and the person themselves. You're not going to like everyone, but there is no need to feel hate and desire the oppression of others and push for someone to be hurt or trampled because of your dislike for the sake of anger. It is especially appalling when people feel that way and use religion to encourage such treatment of people when most major religions speak against that very thing. Anger can be righteous but it can also be very damaging. Remember that.