Anger is a complex emotion.
It's one we all feel but are conditioned to believe we should not feel.
We're also taught not to act on our anger,
To wait until we are no longer angry to respond.
Because of these teachings,
We often shove our anger down,
Bury it deep,
Rather than truly feeling and working through it.
This meditation is designed to help you sit with your anger,
To feel it and observe it so you can let it go.
Start by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor.
Close your eyes and breathe normally.
Don't try to think logically about the reasons you feel angry right now.
It doesn't matter why you feel angry.
It doesn't matter if you have valid reasons.
It doesn't matter if your anger is an overreaction.
You're angry.
Just feel it.
Feel the anger.
How does your anger feel physically?
Is your stomach churning?
Do your hands shake?
Does your chest feel tight and painful?
Is your head throbbing?
Do a body scan and note all the places that you can feel the anger in your body and how that feels.
How does your anger feel mentally?
Are you focused on the reasons for your anger?
Are your thoughts jumbled and confused?
Do you get half finished with a thought only to jump to another?
Are you replaying the reason for your anger over and over?
Is the anger bleeding over to thoughts about other things that you aren't angry about?
How does your anger feel mentally?
Meditation is a safe place to be angry.
You can feel the full depth and range of your anger in meditation without causing any harm to yourself,
Someone else,
Or a physical property.
Take a deep breath.
Inhale slowly through your nose,
Hold,
And exhale slowly through your mouth.
Take another deep breath.
Step away from your anger.
Observe it as you would observe a scene in a movie.
Imagine your anger has a physical presence.
What does your anger look like?
What color is it?
What shape is it?
How big is it?
Does it move or is it still?
Does it have a sound,
A smell,
A taste?
Think of all the ways you can to describe your anger's physical presence.
Take a deep breath.
Inhale slowly through your nose,
Hold,
And exhale slowly through your mouth.
Take another deep breath.
Inhale slowly through your nose,
Hold,
And exhale slowly through your mouth.
Take another deep breath.
Inhale slowly through your nose,
Hold,
And exhale slowly through your mouth.
Take another deep breath.
Inhale slowly through your nose,
Hold,
And exhale slowly through your mouth.
Take another deep breath.
Inhale slowly through your nose,
Hold,
And exhale slowly through your mouth.
Take a deep breath.
Inhale slowly through your nose,
Hold,
And exhale slowly through your mouth.
Take a deep breath.
Start by sitting in silence with your anger.
Now ask your anger some questions.
The questions you ask will vary depending on why you're angry.
But you might ask questions like,
Why am I angry?
Who or what am I angry at?
Is some of this anger coming from somewhere else?
If I'm angry at someone else,
Should some of my anger be directed at me?
If I'm angry at someone else?
Listen carefully to the answers that come up to the questions you ask.
Come back to your mind.
How does your anger feel mentally now?
Do you feel more defined?
Are you thinking more deeply?
Now move back into your body.
Do another body scan.
How does your anger feel physically now?
If you find that you're still holding tension or having other physical feelings that you want to let go of,
Take a few more deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Imagine the tension or other physical feelings seeping out of your body.
Take one last deep breath in through your nose and out through your nose.
Wiggle your fingers and toes as you come back to the space you're in.
Open your eyes slowly and stretch a little.
By sitting with our anger and allowing ourselves to fully feel it without guilt or attempting to repress it,
We enable ourselves to move past it more quickly.
After this meditation,
If you are not yet ready to let go of your anger,
You should at least feel closer to being ready.
You should also feel as if you're in a better position to explain your anger to someone else,
If that's necessary.