Get Angry Be Happy

I understand the title and subject. Anger is very delicate yet volatile subject. It’s controversial. It’s very obvious question that how one can be happy by getting angry. But one certainly can. One can get angry and yet feel happy. It’s not sadistic pleasure. Read with unbiased mind, you will understand my viewpoint. All that I am going to express is about your anger to some irritant and not your anger in response to other person’s anger directed towards you. These two are different. First one is your own expression, while for the other one, you might be the cause for expression. To make second one simple, you make a mistake and someone gets angry and you get angry because someone is angry. These two are therefore handled differently.

Anger is a normal reaction of every living creature to any irritant, be it physical or mental. It’s the emotion and that is perfectly normal. Human beings are the one who can control this emotion. But is it normal to control natural emotions? And to what extent? Ayurveda talks of Avarodh. It’s the cause of Vata, Pitta, Kaph imbalance in the body that gives rise to many diseased conditions. Holding back anger is a kind of Avarodh, that can be termed in English as to resist or to subdue or to control. Any of this is unnatural. What needs to vent out must go out. Even flatulence can mimic heart problems and cause alarm. Therefore anything that’s not allowed to go out or vent out, is going to cause some internal damage. And that is more detrimental for individual.

There are large number of books that talk about Anger Management and many of them advocate to do deep breathing or count upto ten or even hundred before reacting. I feel this very funny. Imagine someone did a mistake and you are getting angry. And then you start counting? I am aware about Pranayam, meditation but I am also aware about Avaradh and the damage it can cause to individual. So practice timed/slow release of anger. Take time to decide type of reaction and time to react. Therefore I never count ten to divert my attention, I rather try to understand the anger, analyze the anger and decide course of action. There are different ways to vent out and I will mention about it later.

Consider driving home after a hectic day, you are caught in a traffic jam or slow moving traffic. The congestion is the irritant. You might get angry. You can’t change anything but you can at least tighten your fists and curse. Roll up the window glass, if not already done, and scream. Let the anger be out. Abuse the system, the indisciplined drivers and anything that you feel is responsible for the mess. You are not instigating anyone. Express and cool down. Let the matter end there. After venting out your anger, you are going to feel better, you are going to feel happy and by chance the traffic starts moving after your shouting, you are going to feel much better. And that’s why, Get Angry and Be Happy. Someone may keep cool; keep driving, unknowingly built up the anger and reach home. What next? A simple delay to answer the doorbell will make him/her explode at spouse or anyone else who opens the door. The anger was within and was not allowed to get out at appropriate time and thus the delayed reaction at wrong place. Treat anger as footwear and keep it out. 

We are angry when things don’t work out the way we want. We are unhappy when we are restrained to do certain things. We are happy if there are no restrains. Don’t restrain your anger, vent it out then you are happy. So get angry and be happy. We will see how to do this effectively and with no harm to self and others as we proceed further. Till then practice your old art of counting ten…..and keep counting.

Disclaimer: Every individual is different therefore the way one handles anger will be different. The author’s thought are of his own and are not being forced on anyone. The reader can totally disregard/disagree and author respects his/her views.