When anger takes hold of our thoughts, we become virtually impossible to reason with. We justify our anger and we aggressively defend its necessity, even though it is doing us harm.

And not only is it doing us harm, but it deludes us in the process. We tell ourselves we are right to be angry with a certain person, because they deserve it. They deserve our judgemental thoughts, our criticism and our condemnation.

But as I said, no matter how correct we think our anger may be, it is very detrimental to us on many levels.

Now don’t get me wrong, because anger can be a tremendous motivator, but when we are targeting it at either ourselves, another person or a group of people, it breeds hostility within our heart.

And I don’t need to tell you that while we are feeling hostile, we are incapable of feeling any positive emotions whatsoever. This is why it is crucial to let go of hostility and enmity from your heart, because it is toxic to our wellbeing.

We all know that forgiveness is an essential part of life, healing and growth but just try telling that to a person who is really angry! But it is crucial to remember it for the next time you feel angry. You may well feel justified in your anger, but that doesn’t stop it from doing damage within you.

When we are angry, the sensitivity of heart is completely switched off and this makes us capable of saying and doing unkind things. We can hurt people we care about. We can make decisions that have very negative repercussions without even caring about it, because anger takes possession of our thoughts and feelings, and we don’t care about the consequences of our actions.

So the next time you feel angry with someone, just take a moment and consider the consequences of being in this emotional state. Notice how your thoughts have become hostile, and how this is mirrored by your entire body becoming more aggressive in the way it feels.

Would you like to stay in this state forever? So then why choose it for even 10 minutes?

What exactly do you think the anger achieves, apart from fuelling a greater sense of hostility within you?

Whilst you feel angry towards another person, you may well feel like eliminating that person from your life, but actually it is far more beneficial for our soul to make peace with that person.

To learn how to build bridges with people whom anger you, upset you or judge you is a powerful and life-changing skill to practice. It helps us to grow as a human being; we become wiser and maturer every time we let go of anger and forgive someone.

It’s not easy but it is always possible, and is an absolutely essential part of the healing journey called ‘life’ that we are all undertaking.

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Live in gratitude
http://AlexanderBell.org