Anger is an essential part of our natural, healthy emotional response when something we love is threatened or lost. Our anger tells that something is wrong and needs to be looked at and responded to. It energizes us to take protective action, to respond to injustice. Anger is the fire that helps us stand up for what matters.
If we try to drown out or tamp down our feelings of anger, we are likely to feel overwhelmed and numb out in the face of threat and injustice. We may become paralyzed and unable to take action. We need to feel and befriend our anger so that we can use this powerful energy wisely, channeling it into healthy action.
If we don’t learn to recognize, befriend and ground our anger (learning how to use it for effective and right action,) it can take over and burn everything around us to the ground. Ungrounded anger leads us into making enemies at a time when we most need to learn to connect and work with others.
When we befriend and ground our anger, we allow it to fuel our actions, giving us strength, courage and determination to act, even when we’re afraid or tired. It fuels us without burning us (or others) out. It becomes a well-tended and sacred flame.