Be angry
I've been diving into the emotion anger.
Yes, anger.
The emotion where your fists clench, you get all hot and fired up inside, you may feel your brows furrow and your lips snarl, and you stand ready to defend.
Anger is an emotion that is often touted as "bad" in our society. For a long time, I had thought that too, because I was raised that way along with many others. However, as I dive more into the neuroscience of trauma, I am learning that healthy anger is necessary.
Just like all the other emotions we feel -- joy, happiness, sadness, grief, frustration, love -- we have a natural tendency to express, to emote. Anger is another form on that spectrum of self-expression.
I've been watching the interactions of dogs at dog parks. Dogs have no inhibitions when it comes to letting other dogs know when they've crossed a line and stepped into their boundaries. Teeth are bared, jaw snapping, or a low growl signaled.
They know when to defend.
Like when a mama bear charges towards another animal threatening her cubs...
...or when a male lion fights off an intruder to protect his pride.
Animals in the natural world know how to express healthy anger, when they need to defend themselves, their family/pack, or territory.
When anger is suppressed, unexpressed, stifled, and held back, it becomes rage.
Now, rage is a different beast.
Rage can become violent, harmful, and aggressive towards self and/or others.
It's the accumulated anger that we didn't get to play through when we were younger or even now, and that accumulation becomes pressurized until it explodes out like a volcano, hurling rocks and spewing lava.
A trivial mistake, comment, or action by others, triggering an older wound in which our anger wasn't expressed, that escalates quickly to a volcano eruption. Rage, like a volcano eruption, destroys everything in its path -- it doesn't discern -- hurting others we love, hurting ourselves.
I'm writing this to you today, [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], because I want you to know that yoga isn't always about bliss, love, peace, and light.
Many times, it is about uncovering the shadow sides, the wounds, the unexpressed emotions, so that they can finally become unstuck from the times they got stifled, ignored, and shamed...and be on their ways to healing.
I'm still in this learning journey about my anger, but I thought I'd just share with you that it's okay to be angry.
Healthy anger is necessary for honoring your own boundaries.
BREATHING PRACTICE TO WORK WITH ANGER
The lion's breath is a helpful yogic breathing technique to help "vent" out internalized, pressurized feelings of overwhelm, stress, and anger.