Loving ourselves, each other, and our human community is a deeply spiritual practice. Anxious anger tells us who we are, what we need, and what our limits are. Righteous anger tells us what kind of world we want to live in and won’t abide what it sees as ethically wrong. When we continually swallow our emotions, we are complacent to injustice. When we never express our needs or boundaries, we begin to lose ourselves- which isn’t particularly good for our intimate relationships anyway. If we can listen to the messages of our anger and learn how to channel that energy, it can actually help us become closer to the ones we love in our lives while living as our true, authentic selves. Rage is the energy of hope and possibility: It is a deeply spiritual flame.

~Julie Peters

when you can’t just walk away….

inquiry for today~ how many times can you find the right words?

when there’s no other way

In Buddhist psychology, anger is a very interesting state. The positive element of it is energy. Anger keeps us from being passive or complacent, and it gives us courage. It’s often the angriest person in the room who’s insisting everybody look at the problem. while everyone else is determined to look the other way.

So there’s a power to that. But if the anger becomes chronic, we can burn up. Anger can destroy us.

It’s also true that when we’re consumed with anger, we lose perspective. We don’t see options; we don’t find creative solutions. So the first step is what I described before= seeing the anger itself, without the add-ons. Feel it in a more balanced way and watch as it changes. That will create space, and in that space, options arise.

~Sharon Salzberg