Mindful of the Root to Anger

We see violence and anger and for many of us our instant reaction is to be angry and violent ourselves

I watch a child shouting abusive language at an adult and I instantly feel angry. I want to discipline this child. Teach them to respect adults and know their place. I want to shout and slap. I’m angry enough for this to build into rage and fury.

It’s only when I stop and become mindful do I realise what this actually is. I become aware of how infected by fear I have become. The angry child is terrified and powerless and all I wanted to do was compound this. I became fearful and angry myself. It’s a childish response. I must be the adult

Once I acknowledge the responsibility of becoming the adult I allow something else to take over my mind. That’s right. I allow room in my mind for the opposite of fear. As soon as I do this it is this emotion that begins to consume my thinking and feelings. I allow it to consume my mind. When I do this, what I want now, is to hold this terrified child in my arms until my love helps their fear subside. The antidote to fear and anger, that can all too easily build into rage and fury, is love. All we need do is become mindful enough to begin questioning our initial reaction. In this way we begin to give love room to exist in our minds.

An important consideration is how mindfulness can allow us to see the very root to our initial reaction to a child’s anger. We can ask: How is it I feel instantly angry myself? Where did I learn this reaction?

In my case this reaction is down to conditioning. I was taught that children are inferior to adults and should reflect this in their behaviour. Authoritarian parents – inferior, childish and conditioned themselves – made certain that I showed inferiority to their superiority. As such, my instant reaction to seeing, or experiencing a child demonstration abusive angry, language to an adult, was as my conditioning dictated. Instead, I can be aware now, and allow the opposite of fear to consume me.