Anger.

It’s no different than smoking, drinking or drugging in that every single day you know it’s slowly killing you, but – you cannot or will not stop!

It affects the basics of life – health, happiness, relationships.

Lifespan.

Anger, unlike smoking, is easily justified – to the multitudes afflicted with it.

I was one of those multitudes. And, no one would argue that I wasn’t justified.

I don’t believe there is a soul on this earth who would say that they are angry for no reason whatsoever. That they carry this toxic, crushing weight for the sheer enjoyment of it. Anger is exhausting – nobody volunteers for it.

We feel justified in our anger because we feel we earned it – that we are entitled to it, in fact – and therefore, we aren’t letting go of it that easily.

Justified is one thing. Healthy is quite another.

The very thought of letting go of our anger leaves us shaken – and stirred. We can become addicted to it at a very young age. It becomes a constant companion that we can depend on to be there. We can hide behind it – just as we do behind alcohol and drugs.

The prognosis is never great, and treatment includes painful injections of time, and an ongoing prescription of effort, tolerance and patience.

It takes a steel commitment and a brutal honesty, but, this debilitating disorder can be forced back into remission, and, with constant, vigilant monitoring – has been know to be completely eradicated!

A positive attitude has been known to make the difference between life and death.

Whether one decides to deal with the toxicity of anger – or to wallow in it – correlates directly with ones ability to see the big picture that exists just beyond the ends of their noses.

Let’s say you are almost sideswiped while you’re driving along, minding your own business. He/she proceeds to give you the finger, call you an asshole, pull in front of you, and slow down to a crawl.

We’ve all been there, yes? Fairly universal stuff.

The reaction is equally universal: We get pissed.  Anger courses through our veins alongside the adrenaline when it registers that, in fact, he is the asshole – not you.

If we choose (and yes, it is a choice) to take the path most traveled – we yell back louder, find more colorful expletives, perhaps add interesting hand signals – and generally do nothing to change the situation.

Nothing except to raise our own blood pressure, lose our own control, and decrease our own life expectancy.

Hmmmmm…when ya look at it that way…

The other choice (and yes, it is a choice) is to understand that this poor soul just got fired from his job, his dog died, or he just found his wife in bed with HER best friend!

Kinda changes the perspective, doesn’t it? Harder to build up a good head of rage?

Instead, one can use this time to breath. To lower the blood pressure. To relax the facial features – chronically clenched jaw included!

Perhaps even to feel empathy towards the poor sot who’s life is so miserable that he feels compelled to behave in that fashion.

Be proud that you are not!

Ohmmmmmm….

Realize that the opposite of love is not hate, as the accepted propaganda would have us believe. The opposite of love is indifference, as it is the opposite of hate.

Total, complete, and absolute indifference.

Hate cripples while indifference frees.

Think about it.

Consciously free. Purposefully free.

Ohmmmmmmm…..