The Consequences of Our Anger

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When I look back on my life and think about the different people I have known and the experiences I have had, one of my memories is about the number of times people have been angry with me. Were they justified in how they displayed their anger, despite being justified in feeling angry? Or was I?

Marcus Aurelius once wrote, "How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it." 

It is most common for us to feel hurt and frustrated with those we love and react out of the intense emotion of anger. After all, we are human, and we make mistakes. We hope we may learn from when we were the recipient of another's anger and how it felt. Often this is not the case; however, those of us who think before we act or react will more likely think of the consequences of our outburst and the damage it will do.

Wisdom literature tells us that: A fool shows his annoyance the same day, but one who overlooks an insult is prudent. And He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a quick temper displays folly.

If it isn't enough to highlight what our anger can do to others, what can it do to us? Mark Twain famously stated, "Anger, as an acid, can inflict more damage upon the vessel that contains it than on any object upon which it is poured." Anger has a negative effect from the inside out when we keep the memory alive by meditating on it. Not only does it affect our minds and keep us at a higher state of overall reactivity, but it also affects our body and blood pressure.

Rather than grasping onto anger, we need to let it go because it does us no good. Plato once wrote, "There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot."

© Daniel W. Trathen Ph.D.