Sssshhhhhhhhhh....I'm Angry!!!

Oh I’m pissed. There’s really no other way to say it. I basically want to bonk people that annoy me over the head multiple times. Yes it’s true as the chi chick blogging reflectionist and a massage therapist with a clinic I’m supposed to say very healing things and talk about how bad negative feelings are. I’m supposed float above the emotional squalor of human living and enjoy the froo froo, new-agey ideas that I long for; that make me feel better at least for a few moments. But here’s the thing…no matter how many little ideas I come up with about how anger is a lower vibration that destroys things, I STILL want to bonk people over the head!!! So, there it is…

When I look a bit deeper though I think about what’s been going on and it’s been quite a lot. I think of so many friends that have died…in the war in Iraq…in their homes… dying painfully of difficult diseases…all of sudden with no time to emotionally prepare. I think of all of the passive aggression out there in the world, enacted on me and others. As adults we may not literally hit people anymore but we sure do make people suffer emotionally. We want what we want when we want it and we will behave emotionally violently in order to get it. We’ll manipulate and thug and push people around and get hostile if we can’t manipulate them. And if that doesn’t work we enlist a bit of social censure and good old fashioned shame and judgment to boost our unspoken cause. So, we live in a world of quietly hostile, controlling people that are angry and frustrated and feeling enacted upon or we are the one who enacts.

One thing I do know is that the anger I’ve been feeling lately comes from things that are not mine to control. I can’t control when people die of if someone decides to be manipulative, passive-aggressive or judgmental towards me or whatever. I know I can’t control these things yet I still feel anger and I still relish the thought of bonking people over the head!! So, what do I do? Should I sublimate my feelings? Nah…that just makes the anger come out sideways and the next thing you know I’ll be running into the streets hitting telephone poles with sledge hammers wearing nothing but an old tattered garbage bag!!

What really works for me when I’m pissed is SOUND. Not just music (although I do think music is the great healer, a salve for the soul), but the Taoist six healing sounds and yes, there is a sound for anger. Chi gong practitioners have been using this sound for millennia to cool down anger’s heated emotional sting. The humorous rule of thumb is that if you’re really angry and perform this sound 30 times, and you’re still angry, then you can punch someone in the nose!

Exercise:
The exercise goes like this and is best to do when steeped in hostility and/or before going to bed at night. Sit on a chair with your feet placed firmly on the floor and your back straight. Raise your arms above your head and intertwine your fingers. Take in a deep diaphragmatic breath and as you exhale, let the sound “SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” come from deep within. Make sure the sound works for you and contains all of the angry angst you can muster! At the same time that the sound is releasing, Turn the palms of your intertwined hands away from you and press your palms towards ceiling. Perform this sound daily no fewer than three times and you’ll see a change in your hostility. Aaaahhhhhhh what a feeling!
Hey, I know you’re angry…so sssshhhhhhh…..