Anger is a Gift

A friend of mine just posted “anger is a gift” on Facebook and it got me to thinking.  Yea, you’ve been warned.

Before getting all preachy about how anger steals happiness and eats at us like a disease, hear me out.

Anger CAN be a gift if you choose to use it in the right way.  By that, I mean I’ve had many occasion in my life to use anger as a fuel for motivation.  I’ve experienced situations in my life where I’ve gotten SO angry I wanted to throw someone through a damn wall but instead (and because I’m not real keen on prison time) I’ve turned that negative anger into a positive reinforcement.

Tell me I can’t do something?  Pisses me off and I WILL show you I can.

I remember being pregnant with Sydni, my first daughter.  Huge pregnant.  Like 7 months pregnant and getting incredibly pissed off because people kept telling me there was no way I could put her crib together by myself.  Even the directions said it was a 2 person job.  Screw that!  Her crib got put together AND I did it alone.

Remodeling our bathroom and dealing with the disaster job my ex-husband did PISSED ME OFF.  I was stunned at all of the things he did WRONG.  Granted, I did call him and gave him hell.  That felt good, I won’t lie but ultimately that anger got the old flooring up, the new flooring down, plumbing repaired and the room painted.

Most of ya’ll know I got out of a bad relationship last December.  He was a mean drunk and we fought a lot.  I was angry more often than I wasn’t.  One day it hit me that I can use that anger as a motivator.  In the end, it only served to get me to a place where I was strong enough to let go.  I did and I’ve not looked back.

Gandhi once said, “Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.”  He’s right.  I don’t believe in going to bed angry.  It makes for seriously bad sleep and I don’t sleep well anyway so the next time you’re angry and you feel the need to ram someone with your car (been there) or put your cigarette out on someone’s face (done it), take a deep breath and THINK…how can I use this anger in a positive way?  Maybe you can exercise it out or maybe it’ll get your creative juices flowing so you can write a masterpiece…find a way to turn it around so it benefits YOU.  Remember, when we let others control our emotions we let them win.

Don’t let the assholes win!