Face up to anger

In a blog last year I spoke about the importance of focusing your attention on positive emotions, rather than on negative ones such as anger, jealousy and resentment, for example.

It is important to focus on positive things in your life rather than on negative situations. As you know, what you focus on gets larger. You and those around you will not experience joy and contentment if you constantly let your anger control you rather than the reverse.

So it's extremely important that when you are angry or when you experience a negative emotion, you don't stuff those feelings. You and I need to be real with whatever is. And if we stuff down those negative feelings and don't deal with them, they'll just simmer, bubble and boil under the surface until they reach a boiling point and erupt in a way that is far less pleasant than just dealing with them in the first place.

Trying to keep your focus on the positive definitely does not mean ignoring the reality of what you are feeling. It means being honest about your situation and how you feel about it, confronting that, making choices about what to do—and then moving on. At that point, you will feel a deep sense of achievement and will feel the power that comes when you have managed your negative emotions rather than letting them manage you!