Agressive Energy, Release Or Transend?

[Epiphany_Inspired]

So, obviously some people are typically more *aggressive* or *angry*... but most of us still get this *energy*...and sometimes it can be put to good use (like Martin Luther King giving a speech)...other times it can fester, as small frustrations build into larger resentments, or if you haven't done enough PD - even full blown rage, etc.

I recently experienced a school of thought that insists this energy must be discharged physically/ verbally (in a safe way) to energetically clear our bodies....but screaming, hitting/ kicking inanimate objects, insulting those that aren't there, etc does not seem on the path to enlightenment, or does it?...I'm confused, what do you think? I am also wondering, since being aggressive can give people sort of a *high*,  if these actions can perpetuate aggression, or connect us back to chip-like behaviours that we are transcending?

It seems like perhaps, as long as we are mindful of our occasional frustrations, etc....and can understand them well enough to transform them into compassion (or productive use), that the physical outlets would be less crucial? What do you think? @Arman you were talking a bit about this in Alfonso's body sensations post, best to just fully experience the sensation?

Edited March 9, 2017 by Epiphany_Inspired

[Arman]

I wouldn't negate any kind of behavior as being off the path of enlightenment, no matter how strange or outside the status quo it might seem. Generally speaking most 'expressing' of emotions that is done in the collective is a form of sedation. It's a reflexive behavior and does very little to respond to the root of the energy. It either perpetuates or aggrandizes the state or just expresses enough of it so that we can push away the rest of it. It also can cause a lot of harm to ourselves and to those around us. 

However that doesn't mean that expressing is never a good thing. In some cases when certain energies or emotions are habitually repressed, then there can be a blockage of flow/growth in an area and in that case expression of the suppressed emotion can be a healing experience. One example of this is an image of a victim of domestic abuse who is in a state of perpetual apathy. In this case the breakthrough into anger and conscious (mindful!) expression of it would actually be a positive thing. We can imagine how in this circumstance it could also potentially be destructive if over-done so it's good to take care. Some emotional states have more energy than others. From the space of anger it is easier to move to courage than it is from apathy. That would allow a breakthrough of energy that may allow better decisions towards safety and growth. For someone suppressing anger, then moving into anger and expressing is a beneficial thing. For someone who already often has the emotional charge of anger activated without much 'trouble', then trying to artificially drag themselves down into anger through expression or focus may be detrimental. 

So in situations where there is stifled emotional/energetic flow, then acting out certain behaviors or types of expression can be useful to allow that energy to start flowing. It may be useful for people who have difficulty allowing themselves to feel anger, or who find themselves habitually pushing anger down. When the energy flows a bit more than it can be easier or more effective to work with it. From that space the mindful healing process is facilitated. 

For someone like myself, I don't necessarily suppress my anger much, so when it flows, there is no need to express it because there is already an abundance of that energy present and most behaviors that could be taken would be me trying to subvert the feeling. Also there is the temptation to express my anger onto others! I can think of no situation where the expression of my anger in words, deeds or subtle behaviors towards anyone else has not been something I have regret. So mindful expression of emotions, I think, should never be directed at others. 

So yeah it'll basically come down to you and where you think you're at to decide whether you need to simply start to release and let go of what's flowing, or whether it would be beneficial to you to act it out and use other techniques to express that energy to get it to flow a bit more. I guess intuition will let ya know there. 

[Epiphany_Inspired]

Thank you so much @Arman , I am truly grateful for the thought, time, and energy in your response. You explained so much, so well, thanks!

I still have a few questions if anyone has answers:

#1. My experience of anger in OTHERS is usually a destructive lashing out. I do personally avoid anger because of this. I *allow* my anger, mostly in letters, when I feel there is a great injustice, prejudice, etc. I grew up in violence, I have the potential for truly harsh anger. What is an example of a beneficial way to express anger (is skipping rope enough)?

#2. Shouting hatred, hitting pillows, etc, while imagining directing this at someone that is not there, concerns me. The person does not experience the anger from you (directly, but energetically?), regardless, I am not sure of this is a healthy practice. So, what is a healthy way to express this energy (like build-ups of numerous small frustrations)? I feel like I just want to enjoy the compassion, forgiveness, and empathy that usually come quickly anyway...

#3. I was in that domestic victim state mentioned, but it was my trusty old buddy fear that got me out (with a little mother-bear protection anger too). I totally get that idea "From the space of anger it is easier to move to courage than it is from apathy". So, is this why anger is considered a "higher resonance" than fear even though it is a secondary emotion that comes from fear?

#4. What are these techniques? links? The ones I've heard of so far seem disturbing to me.

#5. Of course fear is a terrible delusion that I'm working on too...that said, as a *flight* responder (not fight), there is something rather comfy in my usual response...in attempting to enter anger states intentionally my whole body quivers with an energy I really do not like...I can go into hyper-vigilance, etc too...Like my Martin Luther King example above, are there positive ways to use this energy, (something to master/ evolve rather than transcend)?

[pluto]

Breathing, Grounding and Expressing the energy in a creative way is what i have found best for myself.

There's letting it out with love and letting it out in the typical way that destroys us.

[Epiphany_Inspired]

Thank you both so much @Arman @pluto .... sincerely appreciated!

@pluto Can you give an example of a specific Breathing/ Grounding techniques for this?... and does one want to invoke anger that may be a blockage within, or just deal with it if it comes up? How do we discern?

What is an example of a creative expression of angry energy? For example, once I painted a huge spirit bear smashing and eating oil tankers for a big protest. The bear was quite fierce, and I was actually angry that the Canadian gov't was considering allowing these tankers through the Northern Gateway/ ONLY Spirit Bear home, etc...but the act of painting it was pretty precise, and emotionless...I would imagine angry energy painting would be much less controlled...wouldn't they be bold, harsh, & expressive?... feeling like the bear, not looking like the bear....lol.....Anyway, I still have not YET overcome perfectionism (yes, I've watched the video) to be able to paint like that...what are some other creative ideas? Maybe I should train to be a black metal singer...lol...but that actually sounds fun...if there was a way to sing/ release that energy, while actually spreading a message of compassion/ love instead of angry lyrics...there's enough of that already...lol...ideas?

 

Edited March 19, 2017 by Epiphany_Inspired

[99th_monkey]

its of my humble opinion that the "right view" makes clear all sources of energy and provides the map for navigating emotional .. thingies....

[Arman]

@Epiphany_Inspired

hope you're doing well!

Last night I found myself fallen into a very dark/upset place and was kind of overrun by negative emotions. I kind of stumbled into a spontaneous exercise that really helped and it made me think of you. I'll recount it cos I think you may find the exercise interesting/useful:

 

 

I was basically laying in bed like an angry baby with my face into the pillow. I think we are partly trained to avoid certain kinds of thoughts, feelings or behaviors because we deem them as ineffective, unspiritual and as something that we 'should not' do, and I guess that causes resistance, because as I started to allow myself to think certain thoughts, the layers of resistance began to unravel.

I have a habit in which when I am upset, I just kind of eat whatever I want as an expression of anger or whatever. Like indulgence. "Fuck it, I'm gonna eat like 8 snickers bars." and so I kind of did the 'thinking' version of indulging in whatever thoughts or behaviors I wanted.

I asked myself, "What do I really, really want to do right now?" and I had a thought, (and don't take what I thought too seriously or worry, it was just the flavour/expression of the negativity place I was in, and not how I usually feel) . The thought that wanted to come up was "I want to kill myself out of SPITE so as to prove that the universe really does suck, a kind of middle finger to all the forces at large who promote optimism... yeah... a victim of positive thinking"

As I allowed myself to feel/think that thought (express myself), suddenly I laughed because the idea of someone killing themselves from positive thinking was absurd. I felt a little bit of relief.

Then I kind of repeated the exercise and I said, If I could do anything right now or express myself in any way, what would it be? The energy in me was now slightly softer. Sometimes I think some youtube-gurus are a little too positive or airy fairy (a thought I think I suppress because I tell myself I shouldn't think badly of others) and so the thought that came to me was "I hope they're all EXPOSED!!!" and as I allowed myself to really think that thought, suddenly I realized that actually I don't want that, because they're just lovely people doing their best and suddenly where there was hate, was now some love coming through. Interestingly it was in repressing that thought that it maintained its negative energy - allowing myself to express it allowed it to transform. Allowing myself to feel that thought (expressing it) released it. Another layer of energy dissolved as I appreciated that even in that space I could feel some love. 

That once more softened the feeling inside of me and I took a few nice breaths, I repeated the exercise once more "If I could do anything or express myself in any way right now, what would I do?"

Now the energy was I really wanted to punch something and scream - but because I live with other people I can't really do that - so what I did was I visualized myself screaming and punching, and with the visualization I kind of physically enacted a 'quiet' version of my visuals. It was still fairly physically intense to act out. So in my minds eye I screamed, yelled, threw punches at a punching bag until I had emptied my lungs. In ""real life"" my body was tensing, and I was inhaling and exhaling in rhythm with the visualization. 

I often feel like I can't quite up-heave all the anger and frustration, like I want to explode but it doesn't want to arise. By 'acting out' with the visualization, much more was able to come up and though I wasn't truly yelling, I felt like I was getting a similar level of release. I felt a lot of relief.

Note that I am not necessarily doing anything during these exercises, just kind of acting them out through thoughts, visualizations and physiology by moving and working with breath and muscles.

Once again there was a layer of resistance dissolved, the heavy angryness seemed to dissolve. 

To cut a long story short, I kept repeating the exercise - after that I simply felt like moving all my body in a crazy loose fashion like someone having a seizure, so I stood up and did that. Repeating the exercise, I wanted to yell at my guides and ask them why they are distant, so in my mind I did - that brought up tears and sadness. I repeated it again, then I wanted to express all the thoughts about the things I'm unhappy with in my life (negative talking is repressed in new-age spirituality so another form of repression) and that brought more relief.

Amazingly, after I kept doing this and expressing the different layers and allowing them to dissolve, suddenly a thought came that I wanted to just dip my hands in paint and place them on a white canvas, so in my minds eye I did. Then the thoughts got nicer, and easier.

This really gave me an appreciation of expression as a way to release and dissolve.

Hope that helped, maybe you can try this type of thing on yourself some time. The cool thing about it is you don't actually have to leave your room or break anything. Go buckwild in your imagination and allow yourself to think, feel and do whatever comes up - and you can meet the visualizations half-way with your body if you like to facilitate it. 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2017 by Arman

[Vladimir]

Quote

What is an example of a creative expression of angry energy? For example, once I painted a huge spirit bear smashing and eating oil tankers for a big protest. The bear was quite fierce, and I was actually angry that the Canadian gov't was considering allowing these tankers through the Northern Gateway/ ONLY Spirit Bear home, etc...but the act of painting it was pretty precise, and emotionless...I would imagine angry energy painting would be much less controlled...wouldn't they be bold, harsh, & expressive?... feeling like the bear, not looking like the bear....lol.....Anyway, I still have not YET overcome perfectionism (yes, I've watched the video) to be able to paint like that...what are some other creative ideas? Maybe I should train to be a black metal singer...lol...but that actually sounds fun...if there was a way to sing/ release that energy, while actually spreading a message of compassion/ love instead of angry lyrics...there's enough of that already...lol...ideas?

I've had this angry feeling in my throat area for a very long time and I didn't even know where it was coming from, though I knew I held a lot of resentment for my parents. Well, during my recent meditations I started really contemplating this and I had a huge insight that I'm blaming and criticizing my parents a lot and I realized this anger might be the result of my constant subconscious judgement of my parents and it turned out to be true! 

So I think the best way of approaching this problem is to become mindful and think of all the past situations that triggered you, really see those memories and start feeling the anger rising in your body. Then just mindfully observe the sensations and be with them. Remember, you are your worst enemy and the most evil, ignorant person who creates suffering in their life and other people is YOU. You have nobody to be angry about by yourself. When you really embody this insight, you will finally have the freedom to choose what thoughts and emotions you're going to allow to manifest in yourself.

[General 2]

i'd say anger is indeed a good fuel for outstanding actions, but just like a fuel, it runs out very fast...meaning to keep you motivated, you need to keep your source of anger on the appropriate level...

my advice is to work on releasing this feeling and cultivate a more positive drive within yourself