Throughout the human experience, we deal with many different emotions. One of the most difficult and misunderstood emotions we face is anger.
It often feels like taboo to accept anger in a society where toxic positivity has become the norm.
For reference, toxic positivity is the focus on only the positive-bypassing feelings and thoughts that aren’t positive. And while, the original emergence of this mindset was meant to be helpful, it leaves out other important emotions we have to learn to deal with.
All emotions are normal-there’s no shame in feeling any of them. It’s what we were wired to do as humans!
The tricky part is not staying in that emotion for a long period of time. Ironically, not recognizing the tough emotions we are facing is the catalyst for keeping us stuck in them.
Anger is one of the hardest emotions to tackle in my experience because we simply haven’t learned how to navigate it effectively.
There’s nothing to fear about anger, and once you learn how to tackle it the right way, it gets easier to work through.
Here are seven ways to tackle anger the right way:
1. Identify the anger. First, realize that you are feeling angry with open acceptance. Resist the urge to push the anger away. This causes it to build.
2. Determine the source of the anger. Why are you feeling angry? Pinpoint it and understand the why.
3. Sit with the anger. This may take a while, sometimes days or weeks, but learn to sit with the anger. Allow yourself to feel it, accept and validate it.
4. Accept and validate. Anger comes from a place of needing to be heard and understood. Listen to it with compassion.
5. Meet your anger with compassion. Remember it’s okay to feel this way and be gentle with yourself.
6. Start thinking about solutions. Maybe it’s a boundary you need to create, a conversation you need to have, or maybe it’s simply time that will get you through it. Start visualizing solutions to work through it.
7. Practice holding anger with gratitude. Recognize your anger and follow it up with what you are grateful for right now in this moment. Slowly, the anger will dissipate.
Emotions can be incredibly hard to understand and navigate, but once we learn to face them head on and tackle them the right way, we will begin to find emotional freedom!
Anger is an emotion that has an important message, and it’s waiting not so patiently to be heard. So listen!
Thanks for reading and happy healing.
