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Healing WellHealing WellAnger is a basic human emotion that is experienced by all people. It is a typical response to some emotional hurt. An individual experiences anger when he or she feels harmed, mistreated, injured, challenged, or when faced with obstacles that prevent them from attaining a goal.

Each of us experiences anger at some time in our lives. How we deal with that anger will depend largely upon ourselves. Other factors will also affect the way we deal with anger: our home environment, work environment, relations with family both past and present, and relations with those in the community. Anger describes an emotional state that consists of feelings that range from mild irritation or annoyance to intense rage and fury.

For example, a fly hovering around a plate of food might cause some to feel angry. An individual may respond by waving his/her hand near the fly in order to chase it away. This action might be repeated until the fly moves on to another plate. The individual affected by the fly experiences some mild irritation but that feeling diminishes soon after the disturbance is settled. It might be a welcomed distraction for some serving as a release of stress or pent up frustration.

All too often, many of us experience the other side of anger: intense rage and fury. We might be driving home and find ourselves running late. As we speed across the county roads we suddenly come upon a driver who is obeying the speed limit. We feel mildly irritated by this driver and mutter a few words under our breath.

As our patience weakens, we might flash our headlights, drive dangerously close to the car, or beep the horn hoping for the driver to speed up. If this fails, our anger intensifies, and we might shout or try to pass the car without regard to the law or the road conditions. With each passing second, we create stress endangering ourselves as well as other drivers.

When we finally pass the car, we glare over at the driver and realize that she looks just like our own mother. Our initial instincts to hurl an invective and gesture with the right hand are thwarted by the onset of guilt and remorse. We quickly turn our attention to the road in front and drive away only to catch up to another driver obeying the speed limit. Finally, we reach our destination feeling stressed, upset, guilty, ashamed, and, as expected, late.

(Next week: Breaking the cycle of Anger)

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