Will meditation help with Anger
Short answer, yes!
But that may do you no good if you don’t have some direction on how. It isn’t a magic trick, which is often what we are looking for when we ask questions like this. Is this the thing thats gonna fix this? The thing that fixes me? Is it worth my time? We may not directly be thinking those things, but we have some hesitation.
It may be reassuring to hear how the physiology of meditation works. What the science behind it is. There is plenty of research to read, so if you’re looking for that information, you can look that up and read to your hearts content. That information will help but will not give you the tools to use it to change your anger. So, in the meantime, I will explain just how it works in lay terms, with some helpful ways to start using it.
Meditation is a practice of presence. We have all meditated at some point in our life. Take the scary word away, and remember a time you were staring at the ocean, or doing the dishes, or building something, doing art, and there was no tension and busy thought tugging at you and you are lost in the absorption of that moment. This is meditation. Now, the value in this comes in the calm presence and noticing that happens when we are not tossed around by our thoughts and the tension in our body. That presence is aware of fine details, it senses things. It is called sense awareness. Not knowing. Not predicting. Not anticipating, expecting. It is the sense of this moment as it is.
That sense awareness when trained, is aware of the subtle changes in our body and emotion and can speak to it, address it, before it blasts out into the world like a rocket we didn’t even know was inside of us.
Meditation is the practice of enhancing that sense awareness. Becoming tuned into your sensations, emotions, thoughts and doing a little science to untangle some of the knots our mind and conditioning has got us into. It slows you down a bit, makes you more keen on the observation than the manipulation. More keen on watching and less keen on the jumping in and getting dirty.
Don’t get me wrong, meditation is not to make you a feelingless, thoughtless being who hums and floats through space all day. It instead makes you more able to deal with your anger head on. It is YOUR anger, afterall. And often how it keeps being a problem is we are convinced it is because of someone or something else. Once you see it is yours, then you can figure out why it really came to visit and take some steps to change the situation at hand that are wise and calm and effective. Reacting in anger almost never provides a solution or direction that lasts.
An easy place to start is just noticing the feel of your body, notice the spots that call to you, this is tight, that hurts, i’m not breathing. Soften them 1 percent, and keep restfully present with your body and current experience. When you find an area that continually pulls or tightens in some way, and you soften it, notice the goodness of the new sensation and use that as guide of how to stay calm. When you’re rested in that pattern verses when you return to your tension pattern. Practice regularly even if for short periods. Get the Sense of what restful you feels like, so that tense you becomes a neon light, or thorn in your side. A clear sign to address.
Come learn with us at Meditation Makes Sense, our monthly meditation introduction.
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