Being Angry, Like the Birds…

I just experienced a big and rare anger tonight. Of what the cause is, I won’t have to tell you about. But what is interesting in experiencing this very strong emotion is that I can see myself even more clearly now! I learn about new things everytime I experience any kinds of feeling in my life, and I think we all agree on that. Just don’t let a moment pass us by without us being able to be an apt pupil of life itself! Lessons learned everytime we feel about something, good or bad.

Of course each one of us knows this feeling very well, even anger is a feeling that is so common among humans. But what is not very common about anger, is the acknowledgement that being anger is not a negative thing. We tend to normalize our anger or anybody else’s anger into a peaceful piece of mind. But actually that doesn’t always work very well. What we need to do is to get to know our anger better everytime we feel angry. How? Let me put my words into it.

Everyone of us is angry. We can be angry to ourselves, to our friends, to our parents, to our teachers, to our brothers and sisters, to our lovers, to the people we don’t know, and quite often we can find ourselves angry to God. But whatever the cause is, being angry is not the same with being commited to sin. It’s not even a verb! Being angry is a state of mind when we can not be content about some situation. And so often we are forced by so many things (you name it, society, people near to us, etc.) to accept the situation as it is. Some of us keep on fighting to change it, some just left it as soon as we find another comfortable zone. Whatever our reaction to it, that’s how we shape ourselves into who we are at the moment.

For quite long a time, I tried to always be a very nice person. Sometimes to give an impression of an angel is what I was fond of. I tried to look as though no problems could bother me that much because I tend to avoid becoming angry. Well, sometimes I could make it like that, until one point where I just can not accept any level of my own tolerance meter about something. And you know, when that happens I can feel other kinds of feelings as well at the same time: sad, energetic, and even happy! I’m not saying that I felt it all simultaneously. But when you finally cope with your own anger, you will also be able to recognize more value at the other kinds of emotion that you feel afterwards.

That’s only one of the good things about being angry.

When we’re angry, we gain more energy to be released, and quite often we can do unexplainable and great things with the power of being angry. Just as long as we know how to put the energy into the right channel, then we can make ourselves even more powerful! I won’t tell you which one is the best channel, because for me actually there are no right or wrong choices in this life. There are only consequences that we have to bear after the choices we make. So, just as long as we know how to make ourselves more productive then being angry is not a negative thing! And it certainly is not a negative thing if being angry makes us able to say what the others are reluctant to say for a greater good, also if being angry makes us able to work harder to make our idealist dreams come true!

do you know this angry person and what he did with his anger?

But remember, when we get angry, always put in mind that we have to fly higher and higher like the birds, so that we don’t bury ourselves in hatred, it’s contraproductive!! Unless being contraproductive is what you want to be.

Let’s be honest at least with ourselves. When we’re angry, we need to admit it but don’t forget to make use of that great opportunity!

Jakarta, Apr 19th, 2011

Andreas Arianto