Myth: Anger is a waste of time or Just do some yoga and meditation and you’ll be ok. Truth: With Fight, flight and/or freeze: the fight response gets a bad rap; it’s actually quite powerful and important to our healing process. If unfelt, healthy anger can cause health problems like digestive, breathing issues, tension, headaches… among many other things.
When I was younger, I thought being spiritual meant I needed to let my anger go and be calm even when something bothered me. I allowed myself to be treated poorly too often, and sometimes even now, I have to check myself … am I taking the high road, or am I not taking care of my needs.
I grew up around a lot of toxic anger. So many of us did … And they’re numbing themselves out or burying their true feelings with practices like meditation and yoga versus deeply healing and feeling the anger in a healthy way. There are crazy amounts of toxic anger (even now) on the news. I used to believe that all anger was unhealthy.
The truth is that no food, sugar, meditation and or yoga practice will help you heal from anger. The only way to heal it is with feeling it in a healthy and non-harming way… and generally not on our own.
A series of studies over the past few decades show that suppressing your emotions can affect your body and mind.
A 2013 study by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester showed people who bottled up their feelings increased their chance of premature death from all causes by more than 30%, with their risk of being diagnosed with cancer rising by 70%. Truth: Anger and compassion are tied.
The more I was honest with my anger. The more energy started to move in my body. My body started to heal. Love organically followed anger. Depression and anger are also tied…. I often see that many women will swallow their anger by eating more food or doing the opposite and not eating at all. Nothing can change in our lives and society if we don’t express healthy anger. To be honest, if you’re not angry to some degree right now while witnessing some of the horrific events going on in the States as well as all over the world… you are not really paying attention…
And I get it: it is so hard to witness suffering and harm, even our own. There are reasons not to pay attention… The nervous system only has the capacity to handle so much. And yet: Your voice and feelings deserve to be heard and honored. Are you needing to be heard? Need help healing/feeling your anger?
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Many Blessings!
Leslie
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