Me and My Anger

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Me and My Anger

When my Tempers Flare lord I do lose my temper and wonder why? There are days when I feel like I just woke up angry. Some of it may be the changes my body's going through: All those hormones I hear so much about can cause mood swings and confused emotions. Some of it may be stress: when I am under a lot of pressure I tend to get angry more easily. Part of it may be my personality: sometimes I tend to feel my emotions intensely or tends to act impulsively or lose control. And part of it may be my role models: Maybe I've seen other people in my family blow a fuse when they're mad.

No matter what pushes my buttons, one thing is certain — I am sure to get angry sometimes. Everyone does. Anger is a normal emotion, and there's nothing wrong with feeling mad. What counts is how I handle it (and myself) when i am angry.

Because anger can be powerful, managing it is sometimes challenging. It takes plenty of self-awareness and self-control to manage angry feelings. And these skills take time to develop. I am working very hard with God’s help to:

Develop Self-awareness: This is the ability to notice what I am feeling and thinking, and why. I do not want to just act it out in my behavior. I do not want to have tantrums when I am mad. That is why When I am angry, I want to take a moment to notice what I am feeling and thinking.
Develop Self-control: This is all about thinking before I act. It puts in me some precious seconds or minutes between my feeling of a strong emotion and my taking of action I may regret.

Together, self-awareness and self-control allow me to have more choice about how to act when I am feeling an intense emotion like anger.

I have decided to get control of my anger, rather than letting it control me. This means taking a good hard look at the ways I've been reacting when I get mad. Do I tend to yell and scream or say hurtful, mean, disrespectful things? Do I throw things, kick or punch walls, break stuff? Hit someone, or push and shove others around?

I know that making a change takes time, practice, and patience. It won't happen all at once. Managing my anger is all about developing new skills and new responses. As with any skill, like playing basketball or learning the piano, I know it will help me to practice over and over again

At the same time I need the Gifts of the Holy Spirit ministry in my life to enable me to control anger and hence live a holy Christian life. These Gifts of the Holy Spirit are:

Wisdom - desire for the things of God, and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and glory
Understanding - enable me to know more clearly the mysteries of faith
Counsel - warn me of the deceits of the devil, and of the dangers
Fortitude - strengthen me to do the will of God in all things
Knowledge - enable me to discover the will of God in all things
Piety - love God as a Father, and obey Him because we love Him
Fear of the Lord - having a dread of sin and fear of offending God