Unmasking Anger

Many people believe that anger is "unspiritual," a damaging misconception that often causes us to stuff it inside. Spiritual traditions such as yoga and Buddhism can teach us how to react skillfully to anger without repressing it.

By Alan Reder

Stephen Cope suggests that asanas may be in fact the best yogic antidote for anger "because asanas allow you to move the energy." He cautions against meditation for folks in an explosive state because meditative awareness just feeds the flames once the temperature has reached a certain point.

Cope's observations underscore the fact that anger manifests differently in each person, and must be treated differently as well. Some of us get so revved up by our catecholamines that we can't think straight. In those cases, experts have found that methods such as deep breathing, moderate exercise, or walking away from a provocative situation are the best way to lower the arousal level. But for those who are milder by nature, awareness can accelerate anger's rush through, and out of, the body. "Yoga helps people stay with the wave of anger all the way to the other end," explains Cope.

Besides asanas, Cope touts a yoga-based technique taught at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, for integrating emotional experiences. The technique, called "riding the wave," employs five sequential steps: Breathe, Relax, Feel, Watch, Allow. To begin the process, Breathe from the diaphragm, thereby switching your focus from your physical body to the world of energy. This switch can lead to dramatic insights and emotional release, as the prana carried in the breath penetrates blocked areas of the body and their associated blockages in the psyche.

Next, Relax your muscles as much as possible to help remove physical blocks to feeling the wave of energy. The wave's spontaneity and intensity can be frightening, spurring you to defend yourself by tensing up, Cope notes. Cueing yourself to relax enables the wave to continue doing its psychically liberating work.

Then, Feel, which here means focusing on the wave's sensations and investigating their qualities. What's their mood, color, texture, shape? Where do you feel them most intensely in your body? After answering these questions, Watch—that is, engage what yogis call the Witness. "If you can stand in the Witness—what Freud called the observing ego—and stay present with the wave of sensation, then it moves through you and you can make discerning choices about how to respond to it rather than reacting to it," says Cope.

The final stage of the technique, Allow, simply involves trusting the intelligence and positive outcome of the wave and not resisting it. The brilliance of riding the wave, Cope says, is that you stay with the raw feeling without acting on it "until you're really clear."

Classical Buddhism approaches anger in much the same way, says Chodron: "In Buddhism, we are constantly practicing the mindful observance of ourselves, including the arising, abiding, and subsiding of destructive emotions like anger. We don't stuff our anger down, but we don't buy its storyline either. Sometimes we can just watch it, and it will lose its power and dissipate. Other times we apply an antidote to it—a more realistic or beneficial way of looking at the situation'so that the anger evaporates."

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