Anger gets shit done.

Aries Full Moon Deep Dive

“Anger gets shit done.” -Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Anger gets a bad rap. In our culture, anger is seen as a destructive, negative emotion. A symptom of some deep-seeded evil. Abusive. Harmful. Unnecessary. An attribute of the anti-social and psychopathic. And this is doubly true for the spiritual space—an ecosystem that pushes toxic positivity like big pharma pushes opiates.

The benefits of anger

But I have a different point of view. When I was about five years old, I was put into cognitive behavioral therapy to treat my burgeoning obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The therapist worked with me to define what I was feeling, allow myself to feel it, and then use words to articulate the feeling, effectively moving the energy out of my body and towards the appropriate recipient.

How exactly did I do that? With constructive, thoughtful anger.

In this kind of therapy, I was taught that:

• Anger is a warning system to let us know that someone is violating our boundaries, treating us badly, or harming someone else that we care about. This is also called “righteous anger” given that it is activated by our compassion for ourselves and for others and respect for basic moral paradigms- like the Golden Rule.  

• Anger motivates and empowers us to address behaviors we disagree with such that we can constructively improve our ecosystems, both as individuals and as a collective. Without such constructive confrontation, the offender and/or abuser may never shift their behavior…and continue to do harm to us and to others.

• Anger purges toxic emotions and energies from our body and spirit, ensuring that they don’t take root and rot over time into malignant illnesses- like depression, drug addiction, or even some types of cancer. Without acknowledging and communicating our anger, it effectively poisons our spirits, our bodies, and our relationships over time. In the words of Marty in Season 1 of True Detective, “I believe that’s the shit that gives you ass cancer.”

Dis-ease turns into disease

Don’t believe me about that whole “dis-ease leads to disease” stuff? Check out this incredible interview with clinical psychologist and world-acclaimed writer Gabor Mate on this very subject:

He shares several studies that measurably demonstrate how women with PTSD are exponentially more likely to develop certain diseases, specifically certain types of cancer. Dr. Mate draws the connection to how women are overwhelming pressured to hide and internalize (and suppress) their anger. Yep. You read that right. Science and research are finally catching up to shamanism😉

Want more details? Check out Dr. Mate’s new book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture HERE on Amazon.