THE PROBLEM WITH ANGER

It is a Sunny beautiful day. We still have lots of snow and way too much on the roof of our house for comfort, but if it hasn't caused any trouble yet, it probably won't. The mini-mountains of snow I gaze at out my study window have decreased significantly and should all but disappear by the end of the week. It is forecast to be in the fifties later this week.

I reported getting angry in my last blog at how we have been creating the problems in Venezuela and blaming them for it. After posting my blog I hear about the horror in Christchurch, New Zealand. I learned a long time ago that anger only perpetuates what we are angry about.

Anger is seductive. If we have been holding it back it feels healing. It often feels righteous. The trouble with that is, “Self-righteousness feels good for a moment, but only in the way that peeing your pants feels warm for a moment” The source for that quote is the New Yorker. I read it it in THE WEEK 3/15/19. The author is Nadia Bolz-Weber. It expresses perfectly how I feel about anger.

In my personal life anger is almost always self-righteous, maybe always. If I am not feeling self righteous the feeling is probably expressed differently. It may feel healing at the moment but doesn't do much to correct what made us angry. Besides we are often angry about something that has nothing to do with the trigger that caused the outrage. That is why we shouldn't suppress our irritations. Little annoyances can build up and burst out, usually inappropriately.

A Course in Miracles teaches us, we always attack ourselves first. It takes practice to see this. Whatever the event, it triggers an attack against ourselves, a reminder of a imagined deficiency or flaw; in some regards we are attacking the mirror that the other is holding up. In close relationships our partners will always help us learn by holding up these mirrors. I know, it doesn't feel like learning at the time.

When we look at the world our anger can have many sources, our feeling of helplessness, our feeling that we are not doing enough, etc. and it does make us feel momentarily better to be angry. Does it help? No................ it feeds into the problem.

If we see the World at war with itself, regarding whether we worship love or fear, what do we see? We see a continuing choice between making loving decisions and those out of fear. It is like two energies Love and anti-love. Only one is real but they both appear real in our illusion. The anti-love group can only survive on the the negative energy given to it. They have no energy of their own. So if we want to have a loving world we have to question what we are doing with our anger.

I am not suggesting the solution is easy for each individual, simple perhaps but not easy. Another thing I learned a long time ago, simple does not equal easy. We can't suppress anger, that creates depression. However, we can look at it, turn it over, study how it occurs, connect it to how we are feeling about ourselves before the outburst.

Anger does not occur when there is not some comment on ourselves [we are the commentator or agreer.] It may take time to realize that, but when we love ourselves without reservation anger does not manifest.

So getting angry is a signal that we have more work to do in loving ourselves. I still have much work to do. I find it helpful to practice staying in the moment. Those past thoughts are fraught with judgement of self or others. Those future thoughts have a tendency to invite fear. Meditation- meditation – meditation what ever we choose to call it, going to that quiet space and finding that loving spot is immensely helpful.

No, we cannot fight the negativity of the world with more negativity. I know that is obvious, but if we glance at Facebook, we note it bears repeating over and over. Every choice must be love.

Have a Happy Monday!

Love and Peace, Gregg