Month: June 2016

Daily Word Prompt – Angry

I don’t really want to write about anger, it’s not an emotion I wish to own. But if pushed on anger and I would have to be pushed, I would say circumstances can cause me to be angry more than anything else. Serious illness touching the good and undeserved, like my mother who was taken from us way too early and others I have loved and lost. Unfairness, cruelty, unkindness to others, including animals, the list is endless when it comes to pushing my buttons. Maybe I do experience more anger than I initially gave myself credit for, but it’s the injustice I find in life that upsets me and stirs up my emotions.  Maybe it’s not anger after all, maybe it is just sadness at the unfairness in the world sometimes.

If another person who has angers me, I usually make excuses for them after a while being Virgo the pacifist!  I find it difficult holding onto anger and have to kick myself to maintain it, I know this is stupid but it’s the way I am, full of excuses.  I sulk, yes do I sulk, I have also been called passive aggressive once or twice but it eventually moves on as it should.

Back in the day I could do anger, I made a reputation of it as a teenager or worked hard at it anyway. Living on an inner city estate in London, you had to be tough or at least put on an act to that effect. Walking around with an angry look on your face was your protection, although that might just be just another false memory as most of the photos I have hold a big stupid grin.

I can remember being angry, pushing my mother in a wheelchair with her oxygen cylinder attached and a man barging past us without any consideration.  Well I let rip at him and turned the air blue with my profanities.   But it was probably more to do with the situation we were in rather than his actions and just having to let it explode out of me.  That’s the problem, we often let off about something else completely, keeping the real cause of our distress buried deep inside.

I have worked with many young people over the years who have been traumatised by their early experiences. Many of these young people have been understandably angry and presented that anger through their behaviour, I can’t remember it ever doing them any good.  When these raw emotions are turned into something positive it can be life changing for these kids.  I love the quote ‘Don’t get mad, get even‘ and when these young people turn their lives around by channeling the anger in the right direction, that is exactly what they are doing.

If we can channel those emotions into something else and anything is possible.  When anger surfaces, let it come, acknowledge and consider if it can be put to use positively by channeling it in another direction if not let it move on.