Now Is Not The Time
Now is not the time.
Now is not the time to be unforgiving, hateful, divisive, defensive, easily offended, or easily angered. I mean it’s not really ever the time to be those things, but especially not now. The events that have been taking place in the world recently have really been startling. Between the hurricanes completely wiping out cities and islands to mass shootings, it seems the only thing we need to be ready for is to be ready for anything. I’ve been wanting to speak on anger and harboring the poisonous emotion and now just seems to be the right time because with everything going on around us, it almost feels like the world is ending. So however many days we have left (I am saying this in a light, positive tone), now is the time to forgive, love, unify, listen, empathize, and heal. It is time to treat every moment as a gift and live like every minute we have is precious.
So let’s talk about anger.
You may or may not be willing to admit it, but there is a slight possibility that you might be a person who is secretly being controlled by anger. Anger comes in many forms and doesn’t necessarily mean physical outbursts, road rage, screaming fights, or throwing fists. It may come in a more silent form. Anger can be a pattern of thinking around a certain person, situation, environment, or even frustration with yourself. Angry thoughts can actually take you out of reality and into a fictional world where you believe that you can actually punish people or yourself inside your own mind. Have you read Facebook lately? Am I the only one who is getting really tired of checking their feeds and seeing hate instead of love rule people’s emotions? In a world where expression is the rule to live by, we have forgotten to listen and to be more understanding of one another. It seems to me that people are way more reactionary now. I just want to let you know that I am not pointing any fingers here, it’s easy to get offended and upset, but can we conquer these feelings in order live a more loving, peaceful life?
Sometimes people can really drive you crazy if you allow them to. Have you ever been hurt by someone or been in a situation that turned bad and left this horrible feeling that you couldn’t shake? Have you ever been going through your day replaying what happened the previous day and making your stomach sick over it? Have you ever had a problem with your own personality or a problem with a skill that you can’t quite accomplish? Been so frustrated with yourself that you can’t even be mentally present in certain situations? This, my friends, is anger. You may not realize it because it creeps in so quietly, but anger can absolutely suck the light and life out of you.
There are situations where anger is healthy. At the surface, there’s nothing wrong with feeling the emotion of anger. However, there is a lot wrong with "aged anger". Anger that you allow to stay will drain you. It will pull the happiness out of your days. You will have a hard time trusting people or even yourself in certain environments. You will become bitter and jaded. It happens so quickly and if you don't cut it off, the anger will grow its roots deep down inside your heart.
Ultimately our goal should be to keep our hearts pure and our minds healthy. Your heart is the source of all of your life force (sorry, I think in Star Wars terms sometimes). Your heart should be exploding with empathy, joy, and love. A healthy mind plus a pure heart equals a life lived well. When anger seeps into our heart, it can poison other areas of our lives and make our lives sort of miserable. Forgiveness and love is the gateway to your freedom. So what are some practical ways that we can take care of this hurt?
- Give your anger an expiration date. Feel the anger, confront the anger, tell the anger it can’t have control of your life anymore, and then let it go!
- Release negative memories and emotions daily through forgiveness. You have the key to unlock the pain that’s been holding you back. Forgiveness holds so much power. When you choose to forgive you end up releasing yourself from the pain.
- Bless those who curse you. Healing comes from not only forgiving a person who hurt you, but blessing the person. Actually bless them in your thoughts. I know this may make time, but the longer you wait to release them, the longer you will be allowing them power over your happiness. Take the happiness back into your own hands. This is your life. You are a boss babe. No one, I repeat no one, can keep you down.
- Build relationships with positive people. Find some forgiving, loving, grace giving people and don’t let them go. Build each other up and become stronger together. You’ll find yourself not responding with anger and irritation as much the longer you spend time challenging each other’s thoughts, ideas, emotions, perspectives… etc.
- Change your environment. What surrounds you is what rubs off on you. Choose a healthy environment with healthy people around you.
- Be honest with yourself and ease up on yourself. By being honest with yourself, you are choosing to admit that you have a struggle with the emotion. The longer that you don’t admit the problem, the harder time you will have keeping up with your fake happy self.
- Be grateful in your every day routine. Choose to see what happens to you in life as something to be grateful for. Every thing that happens in life can be used for good. You will only become stronger, don’t forget that!
