Productive Anger
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to be more productive with my anger.?
Here’s an example:
About 45 minutes ago I received a call from Josue. He told me that he just got a $35 parking ticket. My first reaction was anger. And because I’ve been practicing, I tried to take a calming, deep breath to process the information rather than starting to yell (which is what I wanted to do). It worked for about the first 30 seconds. However, as the story unfolded it worked no longer. I started speaking louder. I started being mean. We hung up so I wouldn’t yell anymore.?
I realized about 20 minutes later that I wasn’t productive with my anger. It’s okay to be angry and frustrated, but it’s not okay to take that anger out in a mean way. I believe I said something about synapsis’ not firing in his brain, which is?definitely?more hurtful than helpful. Just because I’m angry doesn’t give me the authority to take it out however I want on whoever (whomever?) I want.?
So that’s where I’m at now. Struggling to be slower to anger. And when I do find myself feeling angry, struggling to be productive and kind with it.
