Racism, sexism and all the various other “hate these people” isms and phobias are arguably methods for expressing and rationalizing anger. And they’re bad. But what’s a good way?
Racism, sexism and all the various other “hate these people” isms and phobias are arguably methods for expressing and rationalizing anger. And they’re bad. But what’s a good way?
These “isms and phobias” are used as excuses to rationalize violence, but really they are just excuses based on irrationality and on hurtful stereotypes.
So if you’re angry about someone or some group of people, the way you handle it positively is to use that energy to lift up people.
Instead of being negative and downward, trying to stomp on other people like they are bugs, what about trying to get to where you can help someone who is struggling. Doesn’t have to be a person of the group you hate, but anyone who needs a helping hand.
Think of it this way, the person you’re really mostly hurting when you’re out of control angry, is yourself. All that energy expended on bitterness and stress - why not instead use it to go out and be proactive with people. The world is a stupid place, so - go flip it the bird by helping someone out.
It sounds weird I know. I’m usually a pretty angry reactive person. At the store yesterday, a lady was buying like eight cartons of soda, so I asked her if I could help her with loading them into her car. She was a little unsure at first but then was really grateful for the help.
It’s a tiny thing. But I felt good, in a way. Sure it’s not going to change the world, but it’s better than putting more dents and dings in it.
This is a very useful way to funnel energy in a positive way. But it doesn’t really help in dealing with frustrations/anger. Those tend to build up over time and being able to act it out in a safe way can be very helpful. My suggestion is something like a rage room if available. They have things you can smash up with bats and such and let’s you take the rage out on objects that are already broken/junk. So it provides relief without hurting anyone or anything still in use.
I get that completely, as someone who could use an anger management session or two myself. I just couldn’t encapsulate everything into one brief (and it wasn’t brief) posting. I like your suggestion of a rage room, what I do is I usually punch a wall or something, which ends up hurting me more than the wall.
Trust me I know the feeling. My one and only time I punched things was enough not to do it again. I actually punched two things that time. The first wasn’t so bad since it was the drywall and my hand went through. The second thing I punched, not so good. I punched the stainless steel grill we had and broke my hand. Didn’t do that again lol.
Ouch, that sounds painful!!! I broke the mirror in the apartment I was renting because one day I was furious and punched it. What a dumb thing to do – I needed that mirror!! :/ So yeah, going around punching stuff is not a great solution, I’ve bruised my knuckles more than once.
I had a dumb reason lol. I was in high school and the first “real” gf I had dumped me after prom over the phone and I just kinda let the emotion out lol
I dunno, it’s not such a dumb reason, it seems like a perfectly teenage kind of reaction. I think most guys have been there.