Anger- Elixir of The Gods

Do you ever get angry? Of course you do. I hope you are not one of those people that say you never get angry or that you are somehow adept at avoiding anger. Simply put, you are just lying to yourself. So many of us are scared to admit that we get angry over certain things. Our society thinks that anger is a negative thing to be avoided at all costs. This thinking is wrong!!

You see, people are doing something that angers us everyday. They cut us off in traffic, they yell at us at our jobs, horrible and senseless events happen in the world.......Plenty of things making us angry. It is not the anger that is the bad guy here. It is our response to the anger. If we choose to respond with a tantrum, then we achieved nothing. If we bottle it up inside of us until the anger goes away, we have wasted a golden opportunity. Anger is nothing but pure energy. Watch an angry person. They have so much energy flowing through them they can't even contain. Their voice gets louder and they talk faster. Their movements become more jerky and animated. Why? Because they have all this new energy and don't know how to harness it.

This energy can, and should, be used for positive actions. If you're an older adult and decide to go back to college and your friends and family make fun of that decision, you are going to feel angry that they are not supporting your efforts and dreams. Great!! Get angry and then use the energy that the anger has given you to study harder, longer and more effectively. Trying to lose weight? People making fun of you and pointing out how you have already been on 20 diets already? Great!! Get angry and use that energy to become more resolute, more diligent, more disciplined.

Professional athletes know the benefits of anger. If you have ever been in a football teams locker room before a game, you have seen some bizarre rituals. You'll see men stomping back and forth yelling at themselves. Two men will start punching each other. They'll put their helmets on and head butt one another. They'll yell and scream and stir themselves into a frenzy of bloodlust. Why? Because they know that anger gives them extra energy. They know that they need any and every edge they can get over their competition. They don't really hate the other team. They aren't really angry with the other team. But they created anger. They manufactured anger so that they could harness its energy.

For you peaceniks out there, Mother Theresa got angry. She used that anger to impact the lives of many of the poorest people on our planet. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr got angry. He used that anger to achieve the basic freedoms for all people, most notably those of his same skin color. Gandhi got angry. He used that anger to drive out an oppressive government from his homeland. Jesus got angry. He used that anger to drive out the money-changers from His temple. All these people were nonviolent, but they were not non-angry. They accepted their anger and then they used their anger for a positive result.

So don't be afraid of your anger. Don't repress it, suppress or deny it. Accept it for the tool that it is. A treasure chest of energy to be used for positive actions. And if you aren't angry or energetic about anything, then you can always follow the examples of successful pro athletes and manufacture some anger.