Get pissed off!
Let’s talk about channeling aggression…
You certainly don’t want to take this out on people for a wide variety of reasons. But to simply bottle it up inside is not good either. Very much culturally accepted…but not healthy.
For some the bottling up process comes out in resentment and passive aggressive ways. Snide comments, talking behind people’s backs, etc.
For others they become so disconnected from their aggression, because they fear it, that they become living, breathing spinless welcome mats that people trample over.
“Be a good boy” was seldom meant to say have no boundaries, but how many children take it that way?
In fact, repressed anger is linked to higher incidence of coronary heart disease. (No wonder that the heart is dying when it is so walled off.)
For some the bottling up process leaks out from time to time in explosive outbursts.
These can take the form of yelling, screaming, throwing thing, physical violence and even at the very extreme…a school shooting. An aggressive outward projection of the weakness and pain felt on the inside.
Here we find that angry outbursts are linked to higher rates of heart attacks and strokes. (When you “attack” others your heart is more likely to “attack” you.)
Because emotions and psychology are complex, many are a combination of the above. It’s a spectrum, very few delving into the darkest shades…but the patterns exist in most of us.
There is a difference between being controlled by your emotions and controlling them. It’s a fine line between repression and refraining.
And in fact, “controlling” them is part of the problem as many take this to mean shoving them deep inside. But that’s not control. That’s running away and hiding.
I speak from personal experience in ALL of the above.
Healthy emotions include acceptance and allowance…with proper direction.
Thus, something that is useful, perhaps necessary, is to find a suitable outlet for aggression.
The gym is one of them. And though I’m using the word gym this really refers to any and all ways of fitness training.
Some people use it to just “blow off some steam,” the anger which feels hot being dispersed in this way.
A long run or other forms of cardio can be very useful in this.
This can take an even more direct form of hitting a heavy bag for an extended period of time. Martial arts, just like the gym perhaps even more so, is a way to channel this aggressive power.
But any prolonged physical activity will work to some degree.
You can work through whatever offences took place and allow them to be worked out with your workout.
The heat of anger matching the heat of training, most notably if you’re raising your temperature to the point of sweating. Literally you’re dispersing water (not to mention both water and fat soluble toxins) through your skin and off into the air.
Blowing off some steam is actually a quite accurate description. Like-treating-like can help it to release.
If you’re feeling angry then perhaps working out to blow off some steam is a good route to take.
And its not the only one. Tomorrow we’ll turn to a different one…