How Anger Helps Us Live our Purpose, Together – Guest Post by Leigh Seeleman
The raised or clipped voice of anger gets our attention and screams at us to listen up.
It says, “AARRGH! Something is not right! Something needs my attention! Part of my life is out of balance, there’s something I need to say, heal, shift, do, remember and / or forgive!” In Traditional Chinese Medicine the emotion of Anger corresponds to our urge to live and grow, the liver and gallbladder, the element of wood, flexibility, benevolence and peaceful co-existence.
Wood energy is that of spring, birth, and new beginnings. It is the energy of a tiny germinated seedling surging forth from below ground with all its might so it may break through the ground, find the sunlight above, and flourish in the community of plants. The wood element is our unobstructed primal urge to live and fully express ourselves. It beckons us to be ALL of ourselves, right now. Wood energy is about living our full self-expression and trusting that when we strive equally for individual and collective well being we are supported in thriving.
In Chinese Medicine, the Ethereal Soul, or Hun, which is seen as “soul-personality” lives in the liver and helps each person live their purpose here on this Earth. The Wood Element within us helps us to make choices and plans to live our expression and purpose. It also offers us the flexibility to bend with the winds of changing circumstances and adapt our living plans in an act of spontaneous co-creation with All-that-is. The Hun offers goodwill and benevolence to the world around us throughout our lifetime.
Our primal urge to live and fully self-express is strong and cannot stand repression or obstruction. Anger arises when our primal urge is obstructed or repressed. When we have space to listen to our emotions and let them flow in a healthy manner, we naturally tend the ground of our being in a way that supports our full self-expression.
Most of us have experienced messages and patterns from early childhood and / or the culture we live in that have led us to suppress our expression and anger. Oftentimes this happend because we needed to hide our expression to feel safe in an early relationship or environment.
The voice of anger demands to be heard. Through listening to our own anger we can hear what it is that we really need to say, do, heal, stop, or create. Anger serves as a Guide, Teacher, and Tool to help us address anything that stands in the way of our life-force and self-expression so that we may make life-giving adjustments such as speaking up, setting a boundary, saying no, re-evaluating a situation and / or asking for what we need.
Though listening to the wisdom of our anger and our desires, dreams, hopes, feelings and vulnerabilities beneath it, we can dissolve the patterns of repression, blockage, and excess to clear space for listening to our true wisdom and desires. As we listen from this place of spaciousness we are empowered to take the next steps in our lives to express ourselves and our purpose, feel wild, free and joyful, and to flow with the river of life.
When we stand together in our full expression and voice our feelings, needs, and desires, we co-create healthy relationships / communities / families where the individuals and collective strive equally for the well-being of each cell and the organism that they comprise. As we fully live our unique expression and purpose individually, we offer our unrepeatable beauty to all of our kin in this majestic web of life.
Source: “Shiatsu Theory and Practice” by Carola Beresford-Cooke