Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Anger

Every morning (which has turned into my favorite time of the day) I wake up, make myself a cup of coffee and then meditate for thirty minutes.  It seems to give me a good outlook on the day.  I also have a few readings I like to do before going out into the world and the one this morning, from Melody Beattie's "The Language of Letting Go" was particularly meaningful:
"Anger 
Feeling angry - and, sometimes, the act of blaming - is a natural and necessary part of accepting loss and change - of grieving.  We can allow ourselves and others to become angry as we move from denial toward acceptance.
As we come to terms with loss and change, we may blame ourselves, our Higher Power, or others.  The person may be connected to the loss, or he or she may be an innocent bystander.  We may hear ourselves say: 'If only he would have done that....If I wouldn't have done that....Why didn't God do it differently?....'  We know that blame doesn't help.  In recovery, the watchwords are self-responsibility and personal accountability, not blame.  Ultimately, surrender and self-responsibility are the only concepts that can move us forward, but to get there we may need to allow ourselves to feel angry and to occasionally indulge in some blaming.
It is helpful in dealing with others, to remember that they, too, may need to go through their angry stage to achieve acceptance.  To not allow others, or ourselves, to go through anger and blame may slow down the grief process.  
Trust ourselves and the grief processs.  We won't stay angry forever.  But we may need to get mad for a while as we search over what could have been, to finally accept what is.
God, help me learn to accept my own and others' anger as a normal part of achieving acceptance and peace.  Within that framework, help me strive for personal accountability."

2 comments:

Stacey J. Warner said...

feeling all our emotions is the only way to move through them. This is the biggest mistake people on a spiritual path make, thinking that what is considered a negative emotion should not be...it is, embrace it!

The emotion is telling you something.

Coffee before meditation? interesting...i would think that would make the calming of the mind more difficult...have you tried it the other way? meditation then coffee?

much love

Robin Amos Kahn said...

The coffee is what keeps me from basically killing myself. Well, I'm kidding, but it's a great antidepressant and I drink half caf half decaf, so it doesn't really make me too speedy.
I have to walk my dogs way too early, so that coffee gives me the energy to get out of bed.