Eastern way to anger management

Now who doesn't get angry at one time or another? Everyone does. The only ones who have not experience anger are either now in the graveyard or are posing as humans on earth.

We keep hearing about anger management and these days anger therapy has almost become the norm. Why are so many people angry so many days of their lives? Frankly, I don't have a scientific explanation.

But I will tell you what I suspect. I suspect it's due to partly higher expectations on the part of the modern individual and the his frustration in being unable to meet other people's standards.

In other words, we all are victims of illusionary personal standards set by people other than ourselves. As a result of these expectations and a propensity to achieve worldly possessions and what-have-you, we are constantly in a state of frustration or anger, for want of a better word.

Over in the East, people are the same but their anger is tempered by the ancient philosophy of knowing what they cannot change. This is not a big secret. However, it is not a well disguised phenomenon that Asians generally suffer more than others.

It may or may not be true. But if you were to read the newspapers or if you are a student of history, you will quickly come to the realisation that Asians, or people in the East (no matter how Far East it is) had been subjected to natural calamities on a greater scale than experienced by others in other parts of the globe.

The natural result of the millennia-old adversities has made some people in the East a bit more mature and philosophical about human emotions. Anger is an emotion. It can either work for you or it can work against you.

For example, if you are angry about the present state of poverty you are experiencing, you can certainly do something about it. You can study more, work harder and be kinder to others in general. The last part alludes to the notion that if you make more friends, you may eventually have a greater chance of success.

If you have see a thousand tragedies, or experience decades of mental and physical punishment, you can develop a mindset whereby you can be unshaken by circumstances beyond your control.

In other words, you will become slow to anger. Among the Enlightened in the East, anger no longer finds a place in them. It becomes a luxury, they can no longer afford.

Why? Because anger only aggravates and excerbates the present state of matters. When you know from experience that anger contributes nothing but pain and suffering to your state of being, it becomes unnecessary.

When you understand that the your mental state or simply, your peace of mind is within your power to control, it suddenly makes a lot of sense NOT to let anger get the better of you.

Anger management is a phrase generated on the other side of the ocean, far away from the shores of Asia. The symptoms of anger are the same all over the world. It is a disease that prevails for millennia. It will continue to exist and prevail.

But as far as anger as a symptom that recognises no borders, the Eastern philosophers count them as another mosquito on their leg or wrist. They merely swat it away. It is that simple.

In the end, it boils down to one sentence: why be angry when you can choose to be happy. It's really that simple.

Did I hear somebody shouting from the back of the room: "But people make people angry!"

Why so, pray tell? If you allow another person to make you angry, you are merely acknowledging that he or she is pressing your buttons. I believe that's the modern term of phrase.

If you simply tell yourself, a particularly pointed remark has no effect on you, it won't be. If you say a personal setback has no lasting consequence on your entire life, its effects will disappear.

Who but you has control on your own anger. Think about it. Stare at anger in the face and laugh, and it will slink meekly away and bother you no more.