When I was younger, (10 or so) I had real anger issues. I was quite the spitfire. I think during my childhood, I put 4 or 5 holes in the walls of our house, and did a classic on-stage guitar smash, except the guitar was my mom's ukelele, and the stage was my sister's bedroom. Fortunately, I can't remember every mean thing I did or said in my angsty adolescence. Can you imagine? But that was all petty stuff.
I'm older now, and like ever other mature adult, I've learned to control my emotions. Well, all but excitement...when I'm stoked on something, there's no stopping me. As we grow up, we get to know ourselves. We learn how we react to certain situations. We find out what makes us uncomfortable, frustrated, or straight up mad. We decide what we will let hurt our feelings, and what we will rise above. We discover our 'line,' the place that nobody dare cross. Our breaking point. With experience, our range of emotions grows to an unthinkable size. For as happy and in love as you can be, you have the potential to be just as sad, lonely, hurt, and depressed. And as content as you can possibly be with someone or something, you can be just as angry.
When you're angry at someone else, they become a stranger. Everything you knew and trusted about them feels like a lie. When you're angry at yourself, it's the most damaging type of anger. It can destroy you. Sometimes you're the kind of angry where you want to punch everything, and sometimes you just want to sit and cry.
So what should we do with our anger? Try to dismiss it? Channel it? Or embrace it and let ourselves lash out?
