How does the energy of anger affect our bodies? The color of anger is red: "He makes me see red!" "She's out for blood!" When people are angry, their faces turn red. The energy of anger has an explosive movement outward, which is why it is the most difficult emotion with which to deal. Whether acted out or held in, rage kills. When a person eventually unleashes suppressed anger, he or she is likely to explode in a rage, directing the energy toward any person or object in the immediate vicinity: hitting, shouting, or looking with "looks that could kill." The unlucky person at whom the energy is directed will always feel attacked when in the path of this forceful power. To the child, anger is threatening, engulfing, black, and monstrous. The angry parent will take on gigantic proportions, and small, defenseless children literally feel that they will die. Part of their spirits utterly collapse every time they are in the vicinity of anger. To the recipient, unconscious passive-aggressive anger feels like jabs, or stings, or being shot at by a sniper. The energy is lightning quick: it darts in, strikes, and zings back. The suddenness leaves the person at whom the anger is directed stunned and wounded, wondering what just happened. This energy pattern looks like a frog's tongue when it zaps an insect and instantly recoils. The frog quietly sits on the lily pad, enjoying the sun. Meanwhile, the fly is dead and gone. This kind of anger is most commonly couched in humor. When the one telling the "joke" laughs but you feel hurt, you have just been zapped! Sarcasm is usually disguised anger looking for a dumping ground. Unexpressed anger turns into resentment, which sits within the body and builds pressure. Eventually, the energy will envelop tissue around the main area. The volatile energy will become hot or burning as it collects in volume. Picture the lava building up inside a corked volcano. We exclaim, "I'm at the boiling point!" We tell people to cool off when "hot under the collar." It is very significant where the stuck energy collects. Resentment may manifest as any illness associated with being red, hot, or burning. Arthritis forms because the collected anger has nowhere to go. If you want to hit someone but do not, your shoulder or elbow may become inflamed. You experience the urge to hit, but you stop the action. The anger is trapped. High blood pressure is the most common "angry" blood disease. The volcano stays corked, and the anger backs up in the vascular system. Uncontrolled or heavy bleeding could be anger leaking out, and is very common in female gynecological conditions. Rage held in the stomach manifests as hyperacidity. Skin problems such as acne and rashes that have redness as a main characteristic represent anger seeping through the skin. Shingles are characterized by "angry" welts. Anger has to move. It has to be released in any way it can, and has to keep spreading outward in all directions, like a lava flow. The red-black energy of cancer eventually engulfs tissues around the primary site. Autoimmune diseases — which symbolize the body turning on itself — fall into this category. Bowel diseases may actually be stuck resentment. When you clamp your jaws shut because you are afraid to tell the truth, TMJ (temporomandibular joint, or lower jaw) pain results. Your will holds back what you really want to express, and the body cannot painlessly maintain the tension of being pulled in two different directions for extended lengths of time. Anger simmering at the deepest levels becomes the source of chronic infections. Bladder infections dramatically demonstrate how "pissed off" the sufferer is. Bone infections point the way toward deep-seated rage that has been festering for many years. If you grew up with an angry parent, most likely you have multiple allergies. You experience your environment as being hostile and attacking, and your body manifests allergies to prove that your perception is right. After we experience emotional trauma, we may physically return to normal functioning, but the emotional body stays agitated. Part of the psyche splits off from the maturing whole and continues to experience the feelings of the trauma, as if frozen in time. This is how buried emotions are triggered by current events: the "body memory" activates. The person will say, "I don't know why I'm so angry!" when there is no apparent cause. The traumatized feelings gradually work through the layers of the mental, energetic, and emotional bodies, until they finally manifest in the physical body. People experience symptoms, but medical tests remain negative. The discordant energy pathways simply have not worked down to the physical level, which is the last level of the body to reveal pathology. Medical tests show abnormalities only on the physical level! After many years have passed, chronic fatigue becomes a great component of the illness. It takes a huge amount of energy to suppress the natural flow of life force. When a person denies or simply ignores his or her feelings, the blocked energy builds layer upon layer to affect organs throughout the whole body. It takes more and more energy to sustain the dam. Life force is used to defend oneself against the anger, fear, or despair that threaten to overwhelm if the finger is taken from the hole in the dike that keeps one in control. Less and less energy becomes available to effortlessly play, work, love, and enjoy life to its fullest. When you feel angry, express it out loud to yourself. Just acknowledge your feelings, and they will move. You set the stage for future illness when you feel rage at something someone did to you, but sweetly smile and pretend everything is fine. Crying, shouting, stomping, growling, or screaming when alone will relieve internal pressure. Share your feelings with someone else if you need support, but do not direct the anger at another person. The person actually did not cause the feeling; she or he triggered feelings you are already carrying. Remember: anger is always a reaction to fear. Sink under the anger and discover what you are afraid of. All feelings are natural, and you are entitled to them. Feelings and emotions are the human condition, and it is through them that we connect to and express our real selves. Since self-honesty explorations are extremely difficult to do alone, work with a therapist or healer to let go of that old grudge and to release the person that did you wrong. Our overburdened health-care system and rising costs call us to take increasing responsibility for our own well-being. Being in tune with our bodies and honoring our feelings is an integral part of that adventure! Barbara Spargo, R.N., B.S.N., uses a wide variety of techniques to help clients activate their own healing systems to clear and heal emotional, physical, and spiritual trauma. Contact her at <bspargo@earthlink.net>, <http://www.barbaraspargo.com/>, or (425) 556-9536. |
Research has proven that the positive emotions of laughter and joy can heal, so why can't the emotions of anger, fear, and sadness cause negative effects to our bodies? The body answers every feeling and thought with a chemical response. When we deny or suppress our emotions, these chemicals become trapped in the body's cells. After a long period of time, the stressed cells will cause disease.