Below is a video clip of a fellow offering a different perspective on anger management:
My Own Story:
I once took a course in anger management. I learned how often each of us express our anger in disrespectful ways, instead of toning things down with a little compassion and patience. That is, I learned about it on paper, but had yet to learn the art of expressing anger without getting so lost in it.
A few years later, while in Amritapuri, India, two volunteers and I were hauling a heavy cart filled with garbage to the incinerator site further down the meandering ashram walkway situated about a quarter of a mile away. One of the paths to the incinerator was filled with holes, rocks, and sandy areas that would bog down a heavily loaded cart such as ours. So we decided to push the load through the paved temple walkway, past one set of gates, and finally through another set of gates that had to be opened by key. When we arrived at the final set of locked swinging doors, I quickly jogged back to the storage shed to grab the key which would unlock the gate. Unfortunately, someone had not returned the key to its proper place. This is where I needlessly began to express my anger. I started cursing and swearing and talking loud, ungracious words about this unknown character who had not taken the time to replace the key. After five full minutes of my angry, impatient outburst, a fellow comes sauntering around the corner carrying the key in his hand. I immediately felt so ashamed of my angry performance over the last five minutes. I simply thought to myself: "How little patience and faith I have. It only took a few minutes delay to set off this unbelievable burst of outrage in me. I am grateful to have more patience and faith next time some unexpected difficulty occurs."
Well, it wasn't long before my patience and faith were challenged again. When I say 'faith', I am implying the notion that 'whatever happens, happens for good'. Faith to me is a kind of growing understanding that 'when one door closes, another door opens'. In other words, when I am a little patient, 'things generally work themselves out'. It was on our return from unloading the garbage into the incinerator that we were asked to haul a pile of leftover wood scraps another quarter of a mile away to where wood for burning was stored - wood which would fuel the kitchen boiler. I asked if those gates would be open, and a Brahmachary said that those swinging doors would be unlocked. However, after two of us pushed this fully loaded wagon out along the winding roadway to the gated entrance that led to the kitchen boiler, we were left dealing with another ''locked'' gate.
As I was about to lose my temper once again, I recalled my intention to express a little more patience and faith that, somehow, things might just work themselves out. Beyond the gated entrance was a long, mucky driveway about a half a city block in length. I called down the driveway to anyone who might hear - for some help to open the gate - but nobody was there. My friend looked at me and asked if we ought to just forget about it all and take the load back to where we had picked it up. This time I remembered how, earlier, I had been so upset and angry, only to find the fellow with that particular key had eventually shown up - just a few minutes late was all. So trusting that, I told my friend that we would 'wait and just see what happens'.
We talked for a few minutes and laughed about how I had gotten so upset earlier - over nothing really. After about ten minutes, maybe less, I happened to notice someone was heading our way from the kitchen boiler room, way down the driveway. I looked at my friend and thought: "Maybe, just maybe, this fellow might be able to help us". Well to our surprise the fellow had the key to the gate on him, and we were let in through the gates to proceed to unload our cart. We both were overjoyed with our good fortune that this fellow had just 'shown up'....and with a key as well. I mean we really chuckled to ourselves, happy to have seen that with our patience and a little faith, 'things had worked themselves out'.
I recently lost a job I had held for almost ten years. I have a wife and family and mortgage to handle . Yet, I can't help but remember that with a little patience and faith, 'things generally work themselves out'. And out of this period of so-called 'unemployment', has come this website of stories, songs, and health remedies. For that, I am grateful. In my case, anger management seems to be about having a change in attitude.
