Anger

Khaos wrote: Anger is a great indicator that something is wrong. Usually it is attached to something, and that something should be addressed, and dealt with.

We have a saying in the Dark, that emotions are never wrong, its just that people seldom listen to them, or learn to. More often than not they are ignored in various ways.

Listen to your anger. Whats it telling you? What is the source of that anger? Whats it telling you?

I don't think those thoughts are limited to the dark side. They apply across the board.

I love my anger. It focuses me in the moment. It helps heighten my senses and makes me more aware of whats actually happening. I have been taught how to avoid confrontation, so i don't get into trouble, but anger is my friend more often than it is my enemy.

Anger, now that is something I know a thing or two about.... I tell myself that I am an angry person, but my fiance tells me otherwise. I feel anger on a daily basis but I am able to let it go almost as soon as it surfaces. The key to controlling anger is knowing when it is there and how to get rid of it when it shows up. I can leave work completely irate but 5 minutes in my car and boom the anger is gone but I am not quite calm but not angry or frustrated but a grey area. I calm down the rest of the way by sitting on my computer lol. doesnt matter what I am doing as long as its on and my keyboard is on my lap.

I don't think those thoughts are limited to the dark side. They apply across the board.

No, certainly not limited to, but definitely not applied across the board. Also, in my experience I have not seen much of it.

Here is an example..

you can use anger in a positive way, turn it into energy for exercise and such. We all feel anger, it's how we use it.

In the Dark, we call this dealing with symptoms and not the source. Certainly, exercise and such redirects anger for a time, and perhaps gives you a bit of relief afterwords, but it is not the same as listening to what your anger is telling you.

Language tells you a lot about methodology. We try not to use words like "use, control, redirects,etc". Certainly also, if I am angry in one place, and leave, I may not feel that anger, until I have revisit that person, place, or thing, in which case, the source of my anger is probably still present, and needs to be listened to.

I honestly havent seen it applied very much on the board, much less across it. Many Dark siders still attempt to "get off" on there emotions, this is especially true for beginners. As they usually have been trying the above mentioned methods of control, or redirection(use) of them, which are all forms off denial at there heart. So they get a little giddy in the beginning.

Building a relationship with your emotions, listening to them, seeing how they are directly tied to instincts far older than well, man, learning to truly sink into that, is much harder than using, controlling, etc. These are methodologies of enforcement. Not the same thing at all.

Painting with a broad brush is fine in certain cases, except in this instance I dont think it actually applies.

Khaos wrote: In the Dark, we call this dealing with symptoms and not the source. Certainly, exercise and such redirects anger for a time, and perhaps gives you a bit of relief afterwords, but it is not the same as listening to what your anger is telling you.

Language tells you a lot about methodology. We try not to use words like "use, control, redirects,etc". Certainly also, if I am angry in one place, and leave, I may not feel that anger, until I have revisit that person, place, or thing, in which case, the source of my anger is probably still present, and needs to be listened to.

I honestly havent seen it applied very much on the board, much less across it. Many Dark siders still attempt to "get off" on there emotions, this is especially true for beginners. As they usually have been trying the above mentioned methods of control, or redirection(use) of them, which are all forms off denial at there heart. So they get a little giddy in the beginning.

Building a relationship with your emotions, listening to them, seeing how they are directly tied to instincts far older than well, man, learning to truly sink into that, is much harder than using, controlling, etc. These are methodologies of enforcement. Not the same thing at all.

Well said.

Anger. Because I am still new to the world, and have not learned all the ways of the world. Anger is something I am still trying to figure out how to handle it. It has been a downfall of times in the past, and blinds one with rage when not handled correctly. It can become a overpowering thing, a burst of raw and uncontrollable energy. It can be used, I believe, as a tool and able to work with for a positive outcome.

But Anger, is still a strong emotion, and a powerful one. I for one still have not quite grasped, Anger.

I am not new to this world and emotions still befuddle me sometimes. I don’t know that we ever fully understand them. But I do believe that the more we are able to “grasp” our emotions, the less “grasp” they will have over us.

I had a communications professor tell us last semester that a helpful way for dealing with anger is to change our response to things that make us angry. Different things make different people angry and we become angry about the same things over and over, wearing down a mental path that tells us to respond to a certain stimulus with anger. But if we just refuse to become angry when we are presented with that stimulus and force ourselves to go down a path to a different emotion, we can eventually train ourselves to never feel angry when presented with that stimulus. It isn't repressing the anger. It is just changing it so we never feel angry to begin with.

I didn't much like that professor and she gave a lot of just plain wrong information throughout the semester, so by the time she told us that I wasn't putting much faith in anything she said. I never did try it, but who knows? It could really work, at least for some people. I like to feel angry sometimes. Sometimes I let myself get angry about things that don't really matter just because I like to talk and it helps me let out energy. A good venting is a great way to wear myself out when I can't sleep.

By meeting the warrior from within . . . . the real war and real freedom is known when responsibility is taken for the warrier by the warrier.

I embrace, accept and respect emotions (both sides of the coin) as effects of thoughts and thought processes. It's a journey, called life.

It has never worked for me (though it's part of the learning) to put new beliefs "on top" of old ones . . the underlying ones are still there (avoidance) . . . by way of whip cream on poo . . :blink:

When I sink into emotion, accepting them and letting them fade, it allows an objective view of my thoughts and beliefs. I find being with nature, meditation and mindfulness with a task at hand (all helpful forms of sinking).

It's really funny (or maybe not . . lol) I used to think there would come a point that I would never have the feeling again. . . am glad I am over that one! lol

For me things like anger are the subconscious trying to exert control over the conscious mind, and as such falls into a less constructive paradigm of overall possible behaviors. Instinct's seem useful, but only in a narrow margin of circumstance do they best serve to direct physical action. Empowering anger, and the like, would be perhaps a way to work with the subconscious but it might run the risk of strengthening those already entrenched instincts beyond their most effective application and let them wreak influence beyond that to become counterproductive. So for me I just identify their causative triggers of the instinct, any historical context that might be in my memory fueling the instinctual urge as a subconscious justification, and then keep direct its course where applicable either off or on, and if on where and how. Working with emotion is a different kettle of fish, and strictly a subset of other practice where it serves as a power source only.