"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
I came across this quote from Buddha today and it got me thinking...as many of his quotes tend to do. How often does something happen that makes us so angry that we carry our anger with us throughout the rest of the day?
Someone says something to you at work that's snide or snotty, or someone is rude to you in line at the grocery store or post office. Or you're at a meeting and someone just won't stop getting on your nerves with a narrow point of view. A family member or friend does something or says something that causes you to just outright stop speaking to them until, years later, you find it hard to remember the exact thing said that made you so angry to begin with.
What can you do?
No one is saying to just rollover and become a human punching bag. However, the next time one of these things start to light a fire in you of anger, I challenge you to take a small moment and ask yourself this very simple question - "where will my anger get me in this situation?"
You might feel that your anger will accomplish something, but I'm hard-pressed to believe it, especially for trivial things like people's personality flaws.
If you keep that anger burning inside of you throughout the day, the week, the months?
Just as bad. That anger becomes bitterness, and does nothing more than eat away at the good person you are inside, affecting every part of being - your demeanor, your thought process, your heart, your ability for love, your capacity for good - all eaten away by your anger like a plague.
You often hear people say "don't sweat the small stuff." They're right. Grasping on to your anger, never letting go of the things that irk you, or something someone said this morning, yesterday, last week, last year, or ten years ago...does nothing more than to burn you from the inside out.
Let go of the hot coals, let go of your anger, and find one more way to set yourself free.
New Home!
9 years ago
I've also found anger to be a disguise. For a while, I hated a family member (very long and personal story) until I discovered I was just angry with parts of me that were just like the parts of her I was so disappointed in. It's important to remember that while pointing at someone else, we have 3 fingers pointing back at ourselves. 8^)
ReplyDeleteWhat were you reading when you came across the quote?
ReplyDeleteWanderlust Wolf, I had come across it, of all places, on my wife's iPod. She had downloaded an app that offered several Buddha quotes each day.
ReplyDeleteWhile nothing extraordinary, and possibly a bit cliche, I know, I just found it to offer a fun exercise of opening up the application, seeing the quotes it offered, and challenging myself to think about what one of those quotes means to me.
As soon as I can remember the actual name of the App, I'll post it.
I can completely understand your example of anger directed at others often times being rooted in ourselves and things we're unhappy about inside that is reflected to us by others.
Thank you so much for the thought-provoking comment!