In our quest to understand and manage our emotions, anger often stands out as one of the most potent and challenging to deal with. However, it's important to realize that anger is not something we need to manage. Rather, anger is the result of a process. Instead of focusing on the result, which we cannot change, our attention should be directed towards the process leading to this outcome. By understanding and manipulating this process, we can influence the results we get.

Understanding Anger

Anger is a primal emotion, meaning it's linked to our instinctive, primitive understanding of life, primarily survival. Whenever we perceive anything in our environment as a threat to our basic stability, anger is one of the emotions that come to the fore. It's not the only primal emotion we possess, with others including rage, fear, jealousy, envy, greed, and low self-esteem.

At this point, you might be wondering, why do we have emotions? The simple answer is that emotions are motivators for action. We act based on what we feel. If we don't care about something, we're unlikely to engage in that activity unless forced, an act that can also trigger a primitive emotion like resentment.

The Origin of Emotions

Emotions originate from your brain's interpretation of the stimulations around you, collected via your five senses. The mind takes this information and presents you with an image of what your brain has perceived. This image almost always triggers a corresponding emotion.

So here's the process: external stimulation triggers our senses, which send this information to the brain. The brain then interprets the information, packaging it in a way that the mind can present you with an image and an associated emotion. This process is called perception.

Perception is the image and emotion you experience based on the brain's interpretation of the environment. Once perceived, this memory is stored deep in our memory center, primed for use when we encounter a similar situation in the future.

Managing Perception Over Anger

Given this understanding, it's clear that managing anger is not the solution. Instead, we should focus on sharpening our perception and relying on the clues that reality presents to us, rather than drawing from old memories to guide our lives. Most things that people get angry about are often not worth the energy and distress, a consequence of living from memory and not from the reality of the present moment.

In conclusion, understanding the process that leads to anger is the key to managing it. By focusing on perception rather than the emotion itself, we can better navigate our emotions and respond to situations in a more balanced and effective manner. Remember, it's not about suppressing or managing anger, but about understanding and directing our perception for a healthier emotional response.