Realizing Anger And Challenging Its Negative Beliefs

Most of us have been in situations where we have either been at the receiving end of someone’s anger even when we did nothing wrong, or we have got angry at somebody even when they did nothing wrong.

As the most intelligent beings on the planet, we enjoy taking control of every aspect of life. We even expect the world to submit to our idea of control. But when situations evolve differently, anger is the emotion we commonly create. We believe we are peaceful individuals and it is those irritating people or negative situations that make us angry. Check if you believe in any of these negative beliefs about anger:

We might give different reasons to be angry: failure to meet our own expectations, other people not being our way, someone making mistakes, unfavourable situations or fatigue. If none of these reasons apply, we blame the stars, our horoscope or genes for our short temper. Nevertheless, we believe the cause for our anger is always external. But that is not true. Anger is our choice and our internal creation. It is a result of our lack of self-control, lack of patience and lack of awareness to think the right way, in response to a situation. Anger begins in our mind at first as toxic or turbulent thoughts. When we do not control these thoughts, the turbulent energy creates impatience. As wrong thoughts accumulate further, they cause irritation. The next stage is of frustration. If we do not change our thoughts even at this point, our bitter feelings develop into anger. An extreme expression of our anger is called rage. Notice how each subsequent stage becomes more uncomfortable. Realizing anger and its negativity it creates, and challenging negative beliefs related to it helps us take control of it, first in our mind and then subsequently in our words and actions.