Your emotions are the mind’s interpretation of the sensations that come from the chemical reactions in your body, which happen in response to stimulus. Someone says something to you, your chemistry reacts, you have a sensation, which gets interpreted by the mind and becomes an emotion. That emotion invokes thought patterns. You can choose to focus on those thought patterns themselves, which isn’t always helpful, or you can pay attention to what the emotion is telling you about yourself. When we focus into the story, the thought patterns, we can be counterproductive. When we allow ourselves to see what the emotion is actually telling us about ourselves, we can act in a way that benefits us, and the people around us, much better.

That information can empower you, rather than bringing you to a place where you feel powerless. If you know what your anger is really telling you, you will better know what to do with that information. The challenge is that we have been taught that anger is wrong, so we try to make it go away or we suppress it until it explodes – we take away its power, and our own. Anger, when acknowledged, is only frightening to those who don’t want change to occur.

I offer a workshop on the first Wednesday of the month at La Luna Healing called Shifting Anger. My goal is to help people make friends friends with their anger, to learn from it, and to use it to empower themselves to make positive change in the world. Learn to use your emotions differently! The workshop sessions aren’t sequential, and they are different every month. Drop in when you can, just make sure to RSVP in advance!