Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Decreasing the Anger

I'm angry all the time lately.  Turn on the news, open FB, commercials, TV shows... Blerg.

Anyway, it's not good for me.  Hell, it's not good for anyone to have that angry buzz in the background of their brains 24/7.  It raises the blood pressure, increases the stomach acid, tenses everything up, and makes people turn to their drug of choice more - caffeine, nicotine, alcohol*...  Nope, definitely not good.  So, rather than hash over what's making me so damn angry - which was my first thought for a post this morning - I decided to go over some of the ways I'm trying to alleviate the anger.

First, get the hell away from the things that are making you angry.  Turn off Facebook and Twitter.  And if you can't do that, train yourself to scan over the crap to get to what you need from those venues.  Take a walk.  Go fishing.  If you don't fish, go somewhere you can stand and look at something pretty while wiping your mind clean.  Let the air blow the gunk out of your system. 

Listen to music instead of watching TV.  Or if you're like me, listen to music on your TV - cuts out the chance of watching something annoying.  And if you're listening to the radio, change the channel when the radio news comes on.  Throw in your favorite CDs.  For me, when it gets really bad, I turn to Rachmaninoff.  Whatever chills you out.

Find something pretty and happy to look at.  Cute puppy videos.  The birds outside.  Plant websites.

Discover something new.  The other day I spent some time discovering what happens to all the pits from pitted olives.  (One place uses them for fuel.)

Read. Not 'message fiction', but something with a good story or with interesting information.  Something that takes me away from the anger.

Exercise.  Shadow boxing helps, especially if you imagine you're knocking the snot out of someone stupid.

Then once the anger is down to an acceptable level, I can go back to the insanity and weather through it once more.  I've even gotten to the point where I can laugh at it.  It's all so ludicrous, I wonder why we aren't all laughing ourselves silly.  I mean, when the former governor of Michigan said that everyone saying it didn't happen is proof it did happen, I about fell out of my chair.  She's such a silly bitch, how could anyone take her seriously?

The most important thing to remember is that I can't do a damn thing about any of it, so why I'm letting it harsh my life is beyond me.  It is what it is.  And whether it gets better or worse is outside of my control.  All I can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. 

Anyway, I hope this helps.  I'm a little less crazypants this morning and so you got this post instead of the rant I originally sat down to write.

*No, I have not taken up drinking again.  It was just another example.  Not that I haven't thought about it.  Some days the world makes me wish I hadn't dumped the last of my alcohol down the kitchen sink.  When the anger gets too much, I could seriously go for a gin and tonic.

2 comments:

  1. Preach it to the choir, sister. I'm angry at my anger. LG and I vent to each other. I rage, expletives flying. He growls. We get it out of our system.

    I miss the heavy bag we used to have hanging in the garage. Only used it when she was in karate but I'll admit to taking more than a few punches at it myself.

    Whatever happened to the constitution protections of "innocent until proven guilty" and the right "face an accuser"?

    And....there's the anger again. Yeah...not going there. Don't want to harsh your mellow, Lebowski. ;) I'm sleep deprived so I'm going to order pizza for tonight, go pick it up, take a nap while I listen to a book, and then I'm going to start on the FINAL (if they aren't I might just go postal on my favorite editor) line edits of my March book.

    Later tater. And I might just have wine with my pizza tonight. I'm too lazy to mix margaritas. :D

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  2. What frustrates me are all the Righteous on Facebook. Holy, moley, people. Chill out. Every day they seem to come out with some new thing that offends them or the rest of us have to pay for.

    I've had to bite my fingers to keep from typing a response. LOL!

    I don't go to Facebook to hear someone chastise, preach, or reeducate me. They start yammering and I tell FB that I don't want to see any more posts like that.

    Think about it. Who are they reaching? Only the people who think like they do. The rest of us put them on ignore. It's like digital littering. You have to keep putting them in the trash.

    The whole political correctness thing has gone on steroids and we get bullied for even suggesting we let both sides have a say.

    This is why I like to read your posts. Makes me feel less alone. :)

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