Anger Release Work - From Anger To Compassion

We repress so much of our anger in the name of being good, kind, and compassionate. However, anger does have a function and a purpose and it allows us to not reside in shutdown or hideaway. Anger as a compassionate expression often stops us from depressing our bodies and repressing our thoughts and feelings when we truly need change. Anger most real work is hard, but it helps us grow a strong spine and stops the elusive spinal slump of keeping everyone so happy.

We use Polyvagal theory by Stephen Porges here to stop fawning, controlling, shutting down.

In Ayurveda, we can see and express anger in the body with the five pitta subdoshas. You can see the heat of repressed anger in the eyes, skin, digestion, heart, and liver. Anger often covers our repressed fear, grief, and loss (the vata type emotions). Until it’s really cleared from our minds and hearts the teachers (the people who make you angry) will keep showing you how much anger you hold.

Power and freedom to you.

Transcript

Welcome. Today we are looking at anger. My name is Celia Roberts and I run the Biomedical Institute of Yoga and Meditation. We repress so much of our anger in the name of being good, Kind and compassionate human beings, But unfortunately that can bring us into a state of shutdown or hideaway, Repression, And sometimes even the fawn response or tend and befriend response when we are looking at polyvagal theory by Stephen Porges. So anger does have a function. It stops us from shutting down and it gets us up and confident again and confident to speak our truth and it can be stored in the body. When we look at it ayurvedically, Also scientifically to a degree, We can see that anger is stored in the body just like trauma is stored in the body. Anger is stored in five main places in Ayurveda. You can see the heat of repressed anger or frustration, Resentment, Contempt in the eyes, The skin, The digestion, The heart and the liver. So in the eyes we might have redness to the eyes, We might have yellowness to the eyes, We might have a look to the eyes of distrust and also aggression. The first place that you read a person scientifically is at the eyebrows and you read them within milliseconds. You might also have some tension or a torso that is restricted and when blood flow is emotionally mapped we see it's in the hands and the feet to fight or flight and the face when we're hot-headed and so it moves away from the digestive regions of the body and so we might have difficulty digesting and a sense of discomfort or dislodgement in the torso, Not a sense of safety, Comfort and ease. So this is referring to the work of Barbara Friedrichson, So we want to have a strong back, Open heart and soft belly to show that we're in compassionate engagement. We might see heat in the skin, So we might see that in the form of acne or irritation or red, Hot, Itchy psoriasis even in the skin and that the skin microbiome is linked heavily to the digestive microbiome. So we see that scientifically but Ayurveda has long been on to that and we see anger on the heart. So a way that you could see anger on the heart for someone is that the hands might be very red and clammy, They might have a lot of fire and water element because the hands are so deeply connected to the heart. Their breath might be short and fierce or it might catch a little bit as well and you might actually see some redness on the chest as well around the skin. Liver, You'll see that in the smell of the individual, So we often say that we can see maybe the liver in the eyes, So that yellowing of the eyes again. You might also notice that the person has a foul smelling breath or the faecal matter is quite loose is what we usually say in Ayurveda. Now this isn't just, This is particularly for a pitot-type aggravation of the body and we definitely have great emotional maps to see scientifically in Swedish studies. Yes, That the hands have all the blood flow to them, The feet have all the blood flow in the head. So let's go, We're going to release this anger. So I want you to think about all the things that make you really angry, Yeah, And you don't want to be kind about it and you don't want to be compassionate about it and you don't want to be, You want to be as truthful as you can be. So I want you to think about all the things that make you infuriated. Perhaps it's your mum, Perhaps it's your dad, Perhaps it's your partner or your kids and you're going to start, If you can, Just banging your hands into a pillow. Great, And I'm going to add a sound. Now, Anger release is not easy work, So it's. . . Good, Now keep that going. Find a different sound to anger, A different sound to anger and I want you to think about all the things that you need to say that you're not saying because you're afraid of expressing your anger. Keep that going. Maybe you chop with your hands now rather than the fist, Chopping. All the things that you don't say, You really anger me, You really upset me, You don't help me, You don't understand, You don't understand, I lost, My fault, Your fault, Your fault, You shouldn't be doing this, This shouldn't be happening to me, This isn't good enough. Keep going, All those thoughts, Say them out aloud. I'm going to give you some time now, Really voice your thoughts. Good, Now if you can stand up, I want you to start to stomp your feet, So stand up and start to stomp your feet. Good, And then pummel your hands, Your fists into your thighs. Really want to let the blood flow to the hands and feet be released and then we'll really growl. You really want your body to kind of tell the truth. You don't want to repress, You don't want to depress, You don't want to hide away. So what is happening is you're expressing this anger which you might be a bit frightened to express is that your body might go into shutdown and you might start feeling a different way and you might, Oh it's too much, It's too much, But you're going to stay with the anger. Keep going, Keep going, Keep going, Pushing in, Pushing in and say now all the things that are driving you mad and you're going to be really honest with yourself, Just so truthful about it. This person makes me angry because. . . And I want you to really feel it. Keep stomping, Keep stomping, Keep pummeling, Pummeling your hands however you wish to do it. Good, Okay now let's come down, Take a steady in-breath, Seated if you wish. Exhale, Come to child's pose or just head down between your knees. Anger is a compassionate expression of who we are. It's often something that creates great change in our life and whilst anger is always of the past and predicted in the future because we don't like what we see based on it on the past that's stored in the body and mind and heart, Anger can be a compassionate expression of needing to make change in our lives and it can stop us from depressing our bodies and repressing our thoughts and feelings when we truly need this change. I find anger release work really, Really, Really hard. I don't like it at all but it really does help us to grow a spine. So the person with anger in the body has a sympathetic hold in their spine which we might call sympathetic posturing. I'm referring to the work of Tom Myers and sometimes we've been tending, Befriending, Fawning, Keeping everyone happy for so long by not speaking the truth and our body slumps. We're actually so sad and tired and exhausted underneath of keeping everyone so very, Very happy. So this time I want you to breathe anger. So when we look at the research behind emotional cognition we can see that nostrils flare in anger and we want to flare the nostrils as we breathe. So we're gonna breathe fast now and you're gonna breathe a really angry breath and you're gonna sort of let it rip and what I'm doing here is I'm adding a twist to the torso because in yoga that helps us release anger from the spine. So flare the nostrils and create a little twist in your spine as you breathe. You might send your head to the side and keep that going. Great, Keep that going, Keep that going, Keep that going and then head down and then I want you to really if you need to breathe into a pillow or into your arm please do and then we're just going to roar like a lion. Simhasana. Good, Now we want to work the anger in the belly. So this is acidity, Heartburn, Gastric problems, Gastritis, Anything that's hot, Any swelling or aggravation in this region. So this time we stick the tongue out and we use breath of fire here and we breathe out everything that has been really repressed for a very long time and you pump the belly. The belly pump will happen naturally on the exhalation. Don't worry about breathing in. Off we go. Tongues out, Belly pumping and really focus on what has been making you angry. Breathe it out, Say it with your breath, With your body. Good, Hold your heart, Hold yourself tenderly and carefully. Don't be frightened of anger. Sometimes we've repressed it for such a long time because we're fearful, Really fearful of the consequences that being angry might bring. The fear of loss, Abandonment, Being rejected. Good, Okay we're going to complete our anger practice just with our hands now and I want you to chop really fast into the hands and then add the sound. So you're chopping with the hands which is a pitta type stroke in Ayurveda when we come to massage to release heat. So you're chopping the hands into some soft object and then you're going to growl and let it rip with any sound that you like. A lioness, Just let it rip. You find your sound now, Keep that chopping going. Any sound, Any sound that you need to bring that up all the way from the belly right out to the limbs and bring it up in the voice. As fast as you can go with the hands, As much as you can with the breath, Bring in the sound. And then silence, Stillness and then we'll practice Tonglin. Tonglin is a Tibetan Buddhist practice of giving and taking and it transforms our suffering into compassion. So we breathe in any suffering in the body that we might be experiencing. So I want you to really deeply feel into where you might express or know anger in your body. So heat, Discomfort, Disease in the torso, Perhaps heat in the eyes. Breathe that up into the heart space and then transform that energy with a warm, Compassionate, Kind breath. So we breathe in the darkness, The tension, The tightness and the suffering to the heart space and we breathe out warmth, Compassion, Care for ourselves and gentility. Breathe in any of the darkness, The dark smoke, The heat in the body. Breathe it into the heart space and breathe out with a gentle, Compassionate, Loving, Warm breath. Good. Okay now we take the Tonglin and we transform our Tonglin towards another human being. And so I want you to think of someone who might be making you incredibly angry. This person is your teacher. This person is your Upaguru. Upaguru means not necessarily like a Satguru, Bringer of truth, But the person who's showing you where you're still stuck, Not yet liberated. So I want you to really, Really be aware of this Upaguru, This teacher, This person who makes you angry and if you feel that it's possible, We're going to use the practice of Tonglin. So you'll breathe in their suffering into your own heart and then breathe out compassion, Warmth, Light, Love and care to them. Breathe in their suffering like you're sucking it in. And then breathe out compassion, Light towards this human being. Breathe in their suffering, Their darkness, Their tension. And then breathe out compassion, Care, Light, Tension to this human being. Breathe it in. Breathing out. Breathing in. Breathing out. Let's take our last round. The Tibetan Buddhists use this to heal many ailments of the body. It also might be referred to as spiritual surgery. So we're now using this to heal our own bodies, Our own minds and our own hearts. And the pattern that we might have with the other, Breathing in and breathing out. Good. When you're ready, Sit in contemplation and self-inquiry. What is it in the other that really drives you mad? Do you know this in yourself? How could you know it in the other if you didn't know it within yourself? Label all the things about this other that drive you mad. They're selfish. They're rejecting. They're angry. Turn it around. I'm selfish. I'm rejecting. I'm angry. Is it true? Where do you feel these thoughts in the body? I'm selfish, Rejecting and angry. Where would you be without the thoughts? Where would you be without the thought? He or she is angry. I'm angry. Where would you be without that? We'll take it further. Svatthaya, Self-inquiry. Who is this I that is angry? Here, The best thing to do is to not answer the question. Who is this self, This I, That is so angered, So discompassionate, So infuriated and enraged by this situation? Who is that? Who is that? What is that? Don't answer the question. Good. Now then, Just bring your attention back to the breath, The opening of the heart. Recognize that every situation and every person given to you is a teacher and they're here to really open you up, Open your heart and your mind and liberate your soul. So if your Upa Guru speaks, Really listen. What is the teacher telling me? What are they saying? Where are they showing me I'm still blocked? I'm still holding on to anger. Anger is definitely of the past, A set of perceptions, Beliefs that we predict into the future. Our sense of self is a set of perceptions, Predictions. This is the neuroscientific work of Dr. Niles Seth and that's all we are, A set of perceptions and predictions. So who is this sense of self, This I that is angry? Who is that? Don't answer the question. But this will eventually lead you to the truth of who you are, A state of deep compassion and complete acceptance. That is who you are. You are that. You are that. You are that.

Reviews

Excellent explanation and meditation to relieve the anger from your body . There are fellings that confuse me, like sadness and anger . I feel sad when a close family member rejects me and my husband. But this sad feeling is in my body as a silence anger. Thank you for this relieve today ! ✨🙏🏻

A necessary practice. Excellent information. Thank you.

Very helpful. So educational for me and hugely practical too. Thank you 🙏

Something really new to try. I was in bed with my wife sleeping next to me so need to try when I am on my own.

Best anger release I’ve ever done 🥰I’ve come back to this multiple times and it’s always helpful. Much appreciation 🙏🏻