Anger is by far the emotion we disapprove of and try to suppress in ourselves and others the very most now. This is obviously
understandable because anger is so notorious for creating social conflict. However
There is an amazing application of anger that you would never suspect.
Somatically anger feels like an emotional version of fire. Like fire
it's aggressive in that it usually projects outward and feels very hard to contain.
It wants to consume anything in its path and as such is often destructive in nature.
We like to think that creation is good and destruction is bad
But here's the thing a universal principle is that both polarities have a very important place in this universe
In fact, destruction is often necessary for creation and new beginnings to even occur
What I mean by this is that creation and destruction do not
absolutely have to be contradictory in fact they can be highly complementary
What we learn from forest fires is that they're purifying. They destroy so that the ecosystem in an area is restored.
It rids an area of what is dead dying and/or no longer benefiting the area
The decomposed organic matter that it creates enriches the soil making it easier for new growth. Anger has been critical to our survival
Anger pulls a set of powerlessness and the pain of being hurt and being afraid. This is why anger can be used as fuel.
It's a huge burst of energy. It means we're taking our power back.
Anger means we think we have a personal choice to make.
Even though anger is a valuable self-preservation instinct that calls for the restoration of our empowerment and for the life
we consciously choose, when we feel anger we don't treat it as such.
We've been taught that anger is so incredibly wrong that the minute we feel it
we almost panic
We do anything we can do to deny it, to reject, it to disown it, to suppress it and to do anything we can to
Release it so that we change it -- don't feel that way anymore.
If you want more hints and suggestions about what to do about your anger, feel free to watch my video
that's titled How to Deal with Anger. In that video
I explained in detail the danger of approaching anger in this way that I've just described.
But there is another application for our anger, and that's what I'm gonna teach you today.
Anger
distances us from something that is a threat or something, that does not serve our well-being
Now, sometimes, when that anger comes up, it comes up against something that we do need to be close to
That's why we can often say that anger kind of burns through love it's the opposite of love because it's a push away
It's not really the opposite of love --fear is-- but, long story short. It's a push away.
But sometimes
that really does serve us. It serves to separate us from things that no longer add to our well-being.
When anger distances us from things that we need to be separated from it's like a forest fire
that's designed to distance the forest from what holds it back from growth.
And so, an amazing technique to use with anger is to do the exact
opposite of it that we usually do. Instead of denying it,
rejecting it, disowning it, or trying to make it change or go away or even release it...
instead we use it
to burn away everything that no longer serves us on the inside.
To do this exercise we go somewhere where we can be completely undisturbed. We close our eyes
and we invite it to become an internal forest fire that burns everything internally.
We invite it to get rid of everything internally that we don't want there anymore so that we are completely
internally purified to start over fresh and from the ashes entirely.
For example let's say that we've experienced a breakup. In the grief process
anger is a very natural part of the process.
When you hit that phase you can go and you can sit down and you close your eyes
and you invite that anger to become as large as you possibly can
so like I said instead of trying to diminish the anger you do the opposite you invite it to turn into a
Completely intense internal forest fire that's basically scorching or cremating everything that you want to have be cremated from the inside.
It's like a contained forest fire. It's a bit like a shamanic journey or a meditation of sorts
We can see what color the fire is and what qualities it has
We can even play music that helps the fire burn more aggressively and more destructively
But we can invite the destruction consciously and with our free will
We can see it burning up our
attachments to the person we broke up with. We can see it burning up the memories we have with them, both good and bad.
We can see it burning up the fantasy or visions of what we wanted with that person
but could not actualize. We can see it cauterizing the emotional wounds we sustained.
You can see it burning up patterns, thoughts, beliefs --anything that's detrimental to us relative to the break-up.
You can use this
internal fire of anger to burn up anything that you want. Let your intuition be the guide about what is no longer serving you,
what no longer belongs
Inside you and no longer contributes to your well-being.
But that being said you're not going to control this fire. You're going to --even though you direct it--
you're going to let it burn for as long as it wants to burn until it burns out.
Invite it to burn.
Invite it to consciously choose the destruction in the name of letting go of whatever needs to be let go of.
If you want, you can use music to enhance the fire;
this is a good time to use super angry music in your meditation, but just remember to switch to music that makes you
feel like letting go once the fire turns to embers or ash.
You can use breathing techniques to enhance it as well
This amazing application of anger is a bit like turning yourself into a Phoenix
whereby setting yourself or your being on fire you are being reborn.
I Want you to imagine today that you're so sick of your life,
I mean, it's occurring so much pain for you that you just light a match and you set the whole damn thing on fire.
Imagine what it would feel like, that sensation of complete release.
To just watch it all burn to the ground. That emotional sensation is what I want you to be going for when you're doing this
internal fire anger exercise.
Now, this is really important:
one way to fuel the flames is to thank them for burning up anything that they're burning up
Its natural after you do this process that you're going to feel a lot more free...
It's also true that you're going to feel a lot more
emotionally raw, kind of like scorched ground after a forest fire.
And it's very common that when you do this exercise
the anger will burn through and expose emotions that were resident underneath that anger.
Sorrow is the most common one that I see when people do this exercise.
Sorrow is a little bit like the rain that comes after a forest fire
and it saturates and settles the earth. It's basically priming the earth for new growth to occur
whenever conditions present themselves to create that new growth.
So allow those emotions that are exposed as a result of this internal fire process,
and experience them with non-resistance in the same way that you did the anger itself.
From there you can let go and just allow yourself to internally progress,
it's not like you have to go to work tending the soil to try to create something to grow.
All you have to do is to allow it to happen and to expose yourself to
people, places and things, i.e., conditions
that are conducive to you feeling better, feeling good. This naturally creates a new growth process.
Destruction has a very important place in our lives provided that we are consciously choosing it,
and consciously choosing for our intention to be, to let go of something that no longer feeds our well-being.
When we approach
destruction in this way
anger can be used as an incredible tool in this process. It can be used consciously.
And so, what I gave to you today is the tool of conscious internal arson.
Have a good week