Letting go of rage

We already know that venting anger releases tension. And there are ways of venting anger. Common swear words are easy, but they are not elegant or terribly witty. Although in some cultures, they claim that swearing is a part of their culture and it shows character. I believe I am married to one. Though I would beg to disagree, as I am not comfortable with swear words. I would use humor instead. Release your rage by writing it - and, in the process, play, recover your perspective, and maybe even garner the bonus of a good belly laugh.

One Saturday morning, as I was driving in a packed highway, and everyone seems to beat each other on the road rushing to get ahead. Then as the cars approach the bottlenecking awaiting to pay a toll, I watched a driver cut in front of a pickup truck to get ahead in line. The truck driver got out of his truck, walked up to the car, and told the driver to wait his turn. He had his hands on the car door. The driver hit his hands with what looked like a stick. The truck driver backed away, returned to his truck, opened his door, leaned in, and picked something up that I thought at first was a book. He walked back to the car and lifted what was, in fact, a pistol, which he proceeded to aim at the other driver's head. He moved his car while the rest of us held our collective breaths watching.

Clearly we can see how rage makes us crazy. Of course this rage is nothing new. We see it in the news all the time. When we are enraged we do things we would never have believed possible. Sometimes, we are enraged for very good reasons.

How do we deal with it? What to do? How? As everyone has varied levels of rage and is manifested in various ways, we have to admit that we all have some rage in us. For some of us that might mean giving up a lifetime of denial. Some therapists advise us to control our thoughts so they aren't angry ones. Well, I guess you can give it a shot. Distraction is often offered as another tactic. We can cultivate friends, volunteer, exercise, get a pet, and we can pray or meditate.

Some of these methods can help, once we've admitted to ourselves that we aren't the sweet, caring, happy-go-lucky people we thought we were. But they all depend on willpower to work, and it can be really tough to stay on target. People who have been meditating for some time know that the rage is much deeper than any of us ever expect it to be. Like dandelions, the roots grow faster than we can pull them. It's also like poison ivy, with underground tentacles that wrap around everything they touch, strangling the heart out of us. While a good meditation sitting can quickly soften the edges of anger, rage is different. It takes more. It demands more. It demands our recognition, our undivided attention, and our acceptance.

Without commitment to letting go of your rage, no change can happen. So make the commitment. After all. we're far enough along this path by now that the deepest part of us knows that there really is no turning back. It may irritate the heck out of us, but it is there. So let go of your anger. Let go of your rage.