When pressure builds up there is the eventual release. The release of such energy, however - the direction and power of the release - is all important. Some releases are incredibly healthy, whilst other releases are dramatically painful and even catastrophically destructive.
Anger can go both ways.
This is something that affects us all, because everyone gets angry; everyone has bouts of frustration and interminable floods of emotion mounting, occasionally, to rage.
But then, it can be incredibly power provoking in a good way. It provides the needed energy that motivates many a good cause and many an inspirational story.
It is up to us to contend, then, for which way will we do?
Do we proactively attend to the causes of our frustration, or do we let it fester? Being proactive is about courage and diligence. Letting it fester, these issues that ought to be tackled, involves the cowardice of avoidance and the folly of sluggishness.
Anxiety is a deeper cause.
IDENTIFYING AREAS OF ANGER SICKNESS
Signs of anxiety, whether conscious or unconscious, whether by overt nerves or felt psychosomatically (unexplained bodily aches and pains), are key clues for anger sickness.
This sickness has a pathology about it that is dangerous to our health. We may connect with the sickness, areas and situations of conflict in our lives, both personal and interpersonal. Where there is significant stress, anxiety is inescapable. And anxiety is a knife edge, over either side of which anger lurks.
If we don't attend to the issues, identifying and rectifying the things we already know are problematic, the issues will loom larger. This anger sickness will threaten to manifest itself in increasingly uncontrollable ways.
RESOLVING ANGER SICKNESS
It is the healthy option to identify and resolve the causes of anger sickness. Only when we do this will we derive God's power through the expression of our honesty, courage, and humility to face our problems and deal with them.
If we have any sense of self-interest, from the wisdom viewpoint, we will manage our health proactively. Seventy-five percent of health is not physical. The biggest portion of health is mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Resolving anger sickness, which is being real about our frustrations to the point of doing whatever we need to, to resolve them, is a key determinant to mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
When we have resolved our extraneous anger we have learned to practice forgiveness; to forgive others as well as to receive the grace of God's forgiveness. Guilt and shame are amended.
Forgiveness alleviates anger and it reduces anxiety. What has been bound up for too long already is let go of.
***
Anger can make us sick. But equally, it can provide us great energy if we deal with our frustrations. When we convert our anger into forgiveness we have healed our anger at its source. Healthy responses are always possible when it comes to anger. Healthy responses help people and do not harm them in any way.
� 2012 S. J. Wickham.
Steve Wickham is a Registered Safety Practitioner (BSc, FSIA, RSP[Australia]) and a qualified, unordained Christian minister (GradDipBib&Min). Steve writes at: http://epitemnein-epitomic.blogspot.com.au/ and http://tribework.blogspot.com.au/
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