Don't Feed The Anger

"Flying off the handle sometimes causes hammers and humans to lose their heads, as well as their effectiveness." - William Arthur Ward

There have been many stories in recent weeks in which people have lost their cool and struck out in anger. Some of these stories have been related to rightful or wrongful involvement of law enforcement. Other stories have been of hateful, terroristic people doing unspeakable harm to others.

Yet there are even more daily stories, some reported by the new but many that go unseen except for those near and close. These are stories of simple everyday anger boiling to the surface. These stories are of anger, hate and rage and come in many different forms.

Anger can turn into rage which can lead to pain for all involved.

A question you might ask yourself is what possesses people when they get behind the wheel of a car? A story in the Glendale, California News-Press told the story in which a man was stabbed after an incident of road rage. Most certainly these incidents are typically fueled by both parties. But why do we carry a large "chip on our shoulder" when driving our car?

There are many reasons, but I believe it comes from anger.

Not necessarily anger coming from the other person's actions, but anger generated from what is going on in one's own life. In the example of road rage, the anger could be stirred up by the stress of traffic after a long day at work. We are tired, we may not have gotten the raise we had hoped for or needed.

It could be one of a hundred other reasons which have placed that seed of anger inside of us. We then get behind the wheel of our car and the anger spills over to be taken out on another person. That other driver is just some non-descript person who happens to be in the sights of your anger.

An unsuspecting stranger who is probably having a bad day as well.

Anger is "...an assertion of the individual's most basic right to being an individual," as described by Dr. Stephen Diamond. When all else seems to be out of your control, job, bills, relationships, traffic; we can let forth anger to stake our ground.

We reach a point of lashing out and try to take back what we feel is lost.

And anger is never about the other person, place, or thing. Anger is our reaction to those things. Those things do not dictate our anger. We dictate our own anger and emotion; we control our own attitude.

You get to choose how you will react.

Many times it take simple self-control; stopping and counting those ten seconds, or taking a deep breath to fight back the anger. But if you find that you simply can not control your anger, then you need to find professional help.

Anger unchecked can have devastating consequences for both you, your loved ones and others who cross paths with. Just think of the lives impacted by the road rage incident in Glendale, California. Lives directly and indirectly altered by unchecked anger. Think of the bigger issues causing anger which are in the news.

Anger only begets anger.

Don't feed your anger.

Starve it in any manner that you can. For if you do not, the anger will feed on you and consume your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

After the Heat Comes the Rain

“A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain.” - Arabian Proverb

It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who said, “Into each life some rain must fall.” The fact that life will have its ups and downs is true as a blue sky, the moon and promise of the sun rising each day.

When rain is falling on your day, how you choose to handle it determines how bright the rainbow will be at the end.

If you allow despair or depression to take over, you will miss all that is good within the rain. Know that "Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.”

There is music to be heard in the pitter patter of raindrops.

We can feel melancholy when the rain begins to fall. A rainy day can give us the feeling or need to sit quietly in our home, relaxing and contemplating life. As we sit, we could allow ourselves to ponder the negative. But the negative can overtake and drive our lows even lower.

We can change those thoughts though. We can entertain the idea of dancing in the rain, playing in the rain, collecting tadpoles in the rain or just watching the rhythm of rain happen.

Revel what is good in your life.

The sky will clear as will the problems encountered in life. Know it and speak words of encouragement back into your life.

As John Updike wrote, “Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” Life is not only sunshine, but also contains rain. Embrace both and see your world grow even larger.

Stay inspired my friends.

How Hot Is It

"When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat." ~Nelson Mandela

I live in the Atlanta, Georgia area and we have entered into a very warm period. Some would say hot and others would ask, "how hot is it?" My friend and talk show host Rick Probst of Faith Talk Live would reply "It's so hot out I just saw a roasted turkey fly by our studio window."

Having this kind of heat is something we should expect when living in the south. But when the heat comes, it is always an adjustment one has to make. And with these high daily temperatures permeating everything, the asphalt parking lot turns into a goo-like substance. Shoe prints will sink and leave impressions in the asphalt in a weird cartoon-like fashion.

Some say the heat is a sultry hot, but for me "hot is hot."

When the heat gets turned up, you can either fold into the asphalt goo or forge on to a cooler place. The choice is rather simple.

The hard part is executing the choice.

As you progress through your daily life, there will be a limited amount of perfect days. There will be cold days and there will be hot days. A wide variety is the spice of life they say and such will be yours to embrace.

You get to choose how you approach these types of days. You get to keep the water boiling or not.

Just keep moving forward despite the circumstance.

Is it hot outside? Sure, but eventually that too will pass. Soon you will have the cold to contend with. Either way, keep moving towards your dreams and your best life.

And stay inspired my friends!

Change It To I'm Possible

"Nothing is impossible; there are ways which lead to everything; and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means." - Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

We all have a tendency to start each Monday morning believing the work week ahead is full of impossible tasks. We wonder if we'll ever be able to make it all the way to Friday. The feeling that success is impossible weighs us down before we even start.

A mountain of worry and concern stands in front of us.

Yet Friday appears and a sigh of "thank God its Friday" beckons across the land. We actually find we were able to make it through the week. Many of those tasks we worried about were accomplished with little or no problems.

A successful week completed and all of the worry washed away.

What if we started the week believing nothing was impossible? You already prove it week after week when Friday arrives and your accomplishments have successfully been attained. The mountain was ascended and nothing fell over the cliff.

Start the week without burden of worry, can greater success be yours?

Believing in the impossible frees us from expending energy consumed by worry and self-doubt. To believe early allows you to focus sooner on the tasks in front of you. Believe in the impossible and make it possible.

Change Impossible to I'm Possible.

Stay inspired my friends.