You might find it odd to read the words "anger" and "meditation" together. After all, you've read a lot about peacefulness here, and isn't peacefulness the opposite of anger? Today you will learn, however, about the value of anger and how to use it to provide you with greater energy for life.
One-Moment Meditation can be used like any conventional anger management technique to help you keep a lid on the anger when you need to. As soon as you notice that you're angry—and before you erupt—just do a moment of meditation. Nothing wrong with that.

If you have been practicing One-Moment Meditation when you are not angry, then when you are angry, it will come to your aid even more quickly and effectively. In other words, if you have found a more peaceful place in yourself when you are already peaceful, you will be able to find it more easily when you are not.

The Anger Meditation, however, is much more than that—it involves working with your anger rather than putting it away, leaving it behind or getting above it. I developed this technique because anger has an unfair reputation among people who try hard to be peaceful. Some people—myself included—have a tendency to use meditation as a way to escape from anger or deny that they are angry. Some people are not even fully aware they are angry, and meditation can make this worse.

Meditation should not be used as an escape from the truth of our lives, even if that truth is an angry one. And although peacefulness is a goal of meditation, or a state of mind that can result from meditation, this mustn't be a "detached" peacefulness.

Anger can be enormously helpful. It can provide new and vital energy, be empowering and offer some valuable insights. It can also be a sign that something important is not being addressed in your family, workplace or community. In other words, anger can have value.

The reclaiming of anger can also be an essential step in recovery for people who are depressed, enabling them to clear a logjam of emotion and begin to feel other feelings—such as joy and enthusiasm for life. And for oppressed minorities or others who have been chronically disadvantaged, finding anger may be an important step in building pride, fighting for civil rights or expanding their sense of potential.

The problems with anger are not to do with anger, but with how you handle it. Anger can be violent and abusive. You can act from anger prematurely or impulsively, and angry actions or words can create cycles of escalating hurt and anger. You can also get so hooked on anger that you are unable to imagine any other options. You can blame others for your problems to the point that you forget even to consider your role in the situation.

Get the 5 steps to Anger Meditation

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