Bad-tempered
Can someone please tell me exactly why we're taught that anger is somehow "bad"? This is a serious question that stems from some observations I made yesterday. Essentially I was having "one of those days" -- the ones where everything that can go wrong seems to do just that, and where things that don't normally bother me start to become irritating. It started with a road closure that interfered with my morning ride, and just seemed to snowball from there.
Later, as I was riding to work, and picking my way through the gridlock, I noticed that I was finding it all a little irritating. This is odd, as I normally enjoy passing millions of dollars worth of other people's debt, and I do it so often that it really shouldn't bother me, but for some reason it did. Then I noticed that as a direct result of my annoyance and impatience, I was suddenly doing it slightly more efficiently than normal.
This mood continued when I got to work, tasks I'd been putting off for one reason or another now became an annoyance that simply had to be eliminated, they were also dealt with efficiently. It was then that I realised that anger has it's advantages. If used properly, it becomes a very powerful tool, which can prevent other thoughts from obscuring our focus. Sure, it can be misused, but the same applies to virtually any other tool available to us at any given moment -- and most of those aren't a product of millions of years of evolution.
I believe that we feel anger for a reason, and that it can and should be used for a positive purpose, as a positive force. I have had so many people in life tell me that my temper is a bad thing, that anger is bad. These days I realise this is absolute rubbish. There are few natural things in the world that are inherently "bad", and anger is as natural as the air we breathe (probably more so). The key is learning how and when to utilise it, to control it, but never to suppress it. Admittedly, this is still a work in progress as far as my personality is concerned, but then, I have plenty of time to get it right.
posted by Chris L @ 1:33 pm
2 Comments:
It's not bad, it's necessary. Especially when you're on the road a lot. One just needs to be careful to use anger in a defensive way and not offensively.
I think cyclists would get hit a lot more often if they had no anger about them.
(yes ... I'm back)
~Chicamaravilla (mariposo ...)
Sounds like you've done some constructive thinking about it. At present I agree with you... until I read more psych. ;-)
I've heard it said that anger isn't the problem, but rage. It can be a bit of a trick to work out what exactly is causing the anger, but it's a bit of an emotional gift because it gives you the energy to make changes for the better. In theory.
There's some fantastic Buddhist traditions of spiritual practises for analysing all the connections and transforming the energy. Brilliant stuff.
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