Anger Within

Anger is a natural, and all too often behavioral response to people, places and things that give us discomfort, piss us off, or rile us up. But too much build- up of anger will cause disease, inflammation and illness. When we are angry, adrenaline courses through our veins, taxing the cardiovascular system, overloading the Pancreas, and mucking up the Liver. Anger settles in two specific organs, the heart and the liver.

We are seeing more assaults, mass shootings, political in-fighting, and road rages. Why? When humans face unprecedented change, it creates instability. Instability breeds fear. Fear is not an acceptable behavior to express in this American culture, so many react ‘trigger like’ in anger.

Fear VS Anger

All of us have an abundance of fear in our personal escrow. This escrow account consists of many life experiences were we have gone into fear. Can’t pay the bills? Fear sets in. Diagnosed with an illness? Fear is unleashed. Abandoned by your spouse? Fear bears down on your heart, mind and body. Fired? Fear floods our system. Too much build- up of fear burdens the delicate balance of our mind, body and spirit, and at a certain point, something’s got to give. We have all been to the point where we have said ‘I can’t take this anymore’. ‘This is too much.’ We come to a breaking point. It is here, either real or perceived, that we will lash out in anger, blame, point fingers, or retaliate.

Fear is absorbed internally. Anger is projected outward. When we can’t take any more fear and our escrow account is full, we purge. This shows up through yelling, outbursts, sarcasm, and violence. We cannot tell someone merely to ‘stop being angry’. The anger is a side effect. We must get to the root of their anger. The root causes of anger can be perceived personal humiliation, shame, feeling blamed, or feeling victimized.

Coping Mechanisms

As our culture has moved from the information age to the age of networks, we have lost ‘face time’ with our peers and family. The art of reading someone’s emotions has been lost and replaced with tweets, communicating (even highly personal and sensitive information) on Facebook. Letting it hang out on Instagram—all one dimensional tools. The art of emotional intelligence has been buried under soundbites and waves of sensationalism. So instead of personal support, everyone is an island, left alone to fend for him/herself. Isolation is the new norm. Hiding behind tweet characters and emoji’s have become the new communication tools. So, when faced with overwhelming feelings, our new brain wiring is confused. We have slipped back in time. Regressing to the lizard brain to answer the call in response to a feeling. And then you have the trigger-happy fight or flight response to a seemingly benign slight, or a seemingly ‘normal event’.

When I am intuitively looking into someone’s body, I am seeing inflammation around the heart and liver more often than not. Unresolved feelings will root in our bodies. Acting out is the physical signs we are observing for all the pent up anger and fear. But you can bet that inside, the body is acting in accordance to the feelings. There are ways, in these unusual times, to learn to heal fears, and manage our mind/body/spirit before illness ravages our systems. Just for you, I found this lovely meditation to assist in removing fear:

Give me a call for a Life Transition, Health Healing session. I am here for you.