Anger

The things that happen to you don’t have to make you angry. Being angry is your choice, and you should choose to be happy. You cannot change or choose what happens to you but you decide how you react to them. 

When you wake up it’s your choice, you can either continue with your normal routine or you can make the choice to be happy no matter what occurs. You can be angry with the fact that you have to go to work or be happy that you have a job to go to. When you get to work you may encounter people who are angry and choose to take there anger out on you. Do you react to there anger by combating it with more of the same or do you temper the situation with happiness. It is my experience with angry people that they just need a soundboard to hear them out. They choose to react with anger because they woke up that morning and choose that path.  Once they are heard they calm down quite quickly.  If you try and battle them with anger of your own you are merely putting gasoline on the fire of anger. Their anger grows and the situation escalates. Instead, hear them out, don’t speak, just listen.  They will eventually fizzle out, just like a fire without fuel. Once the fire is gone, ask if you can help. Don’t offer an answer unless they ask for one. Most people just want you to show merit to their issue. 

On the way home from work a car is speeding through the traffic and cuts you off. This used to be one of the most aggravating things for me to encounter. I would be so angry I would be yelling in my car as if the person in the other vehicle could hear me.  I would get so angry. One day I found myself speeding through traffic and I cut someone off. I really needed to use the restroom and I felt bad for the person I cut off. This was a moment of enlightenment for me. Maybe the people that cut me off need to use the restroom as badly as I did that day. Now when someone cuts me off in traffic I tell myself, they need to use the restroom. Guess what, I don’t get mad at them. 

Granted all the people I encounter won’t be receptive of my happiness but I take solice in the fact that I did not respond with anger. I choose to be happy and no matter what happens.