Posted by Ana on January 03, 2001 at 18:42:16:
In Reply to: Re: I recognize this posted by Bartholomew on January 02, 2001 at 20:49:51:
: : : I have been reading up on Zen, and at least one book takes a similar attitude, only it takes it one step further. It says, if you get angry, to stop thinking about the person who made you angry and start thinking about your anger. You are responsible for not only how you react to your emotions, but your emotions themselves.
: : What about anger should I think about? I mean what do you concentrate on? It's easy to think about the person you're anrgy with, but I wouldn't know how to think about the anger itself.
: According to the book, just think about how you have the anger inside you, and don't get angry at the anger, since that just creates two angers. It says to breathe in and out, thinking that you have anger inside you and just observing the anger, and also thinking that you have the strength to change this anger into joy. I don't know if that works; I haven't tried it. My personal remedy is to get as angry as I can, as fast as I can, and use up all the anger. I growl and snarl and tense my jaw so that it trembles and feel the heat of the anger rise up in my chest and try to amplify and feed that heat. I also listen to angry music - Rage Against the Machine and Marilyn Manson, usually. I think about projecting the anger outward, expelling it rapidly. I use violent imagery in my mind and wrinkle my nose and stick out my chin. My technique gets rid of anger quite quickly - it only takes a few minutes. The book says that doing things like that (punching a pillow is the example it uses, though I never punch pillows - they don't break) just expends your energy, so the minute you have more energy the anger comes back. I can't deny that it expends my energy - after I do it I usually have to sleep for a couple of hours - but it doesn't seem to return when I wake up, refreshed.
: : I think my New Year's resolution (first time for everything) is to stop lashing out when I'm hurt and being less moody in general. Oh and to eat more junk food.