Anger is a part of all our lives. With the world filled with stress and problems, feeling angrier and irritated is becoming the norm today. There is a lot of animosity in the worlds among people, communities, and nations. While the cause of anger for various people may be valid and a natural response. But it may result in hurting somebody or reduce empathy in people. It can also be destructive and limit your performance potential.
Everyday life and Anger:
Anger plays a role in everyday life as a motivating factor. People often use anger among the masses to get their thought across. It is also used in discussions to reach a common point of understanding. Though anger is natural and can be directed to good causes, it also leads to bad results such as ill-treatment, discrimination, resentment, and violence. In our lives, especially our personal lives, anger can play a major role. People often get angry and tend to vent their anger on those people that are close to them such as family or partners.
Often anger can lead to thoughtless actions which may not be intended by us. People often misunderstand us on such occasions and that create a negative opinion about you in people’s minds. It can also greatly impede your relationships with others. This also is a barrier that inhibits good communication and the free flow of thoughts. When we are angry we rarely have control over our words or deeds. Many people often start snapping at people in the moment of anger but feel extremely guilty later once they calm down. If this happens with you a lot, it may be time to rethink the situation. If you find yourself getting excessively angry due to everyday incidents such as long queues, traffic jams or just sudden rains, you should be looking at ways to work on your anger. The anger will not change the situation or get you anywhere. But it can cause a lot of hard feelings in people around you.
Meditation can be your solution:
As we saw earlier, anger is closely related to stress causing situations. When you are put under pressure, anger is a physiological response as your body can sense that something related to you is under threat. The anger may just be your body’s way of displaying the urge to protect your own. Thus identifying the triggers and normalizing them may work on the short term. This is not practical in long-term as you cannot always control the environment around you. Yoga and meditation can be an excellent way to regulate such emotions in the brain.
We, humans, are endowed with the capability to think and contemplate things, unlike animals. This is why meditation can really help with our reaction to anger causing stimuli. Studies have shown that regular meditation can cause physical changes in the areas of the brain that may cause anger. It also effectively controlling hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline that are stress hormones in the body. This helps us to process thoughts better and thin clearly.
Meditation and mindfulness also improve our empathy towards others. This means that we learn to handle other people better and thus view the world differently. With such great potential meditation may be working towards reducing hostility in the world and helping build world peace.