Third Term Blog Entry

In the past month, I have tried to implement the tools I learned in Gary Chapman’s, Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way. I continuously attempted to evaluate my anger and focus on the cause of it and also if it was discriminate or distorted anger. When I found my anger was discriminate, I focused on what the injustice was and whether or not it was worth confronting the perpetrator or practicing forgiveness. The majority of the time, I was able to release my discriminate anger but I definitely struggled with my distorted anger.

My husband and I took a trip to London, England this past month for a family vacation. Within the first hour of arriving, I immediately began to experience distorted anger. I tried to self-reflect and understand where my anger was coming from. I understood that I was sleep deprived, tired of traveling, our daughter was being a handful, and I was frustrated that we were lost. I tried to calm myself down and realize that I was being ridiculous but it seemed just as I would begin to calm down, something else would happen to fire me up again. This happened the entirety of our trip and inevitably, I ended up feeling like a complete jerk. I am usually a happy go lucky person and very appreciative, but on this trip I acted like a spoiled brat to my husband. I apologized a handful of times on our trip and once we arrived at home. Thankfully my anger went almost unnoticed to him and did not affect his trip, however, it spoiled mine.

Other than our London trip, I feel that I have successfully implemented the tools I learned in Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way. I practice a great deal of self-reflection and self-talk and it helps me to compose myself and not act irrationally. It also allows me to understand where my anger is originating from and to release my anger, rather than hold onto it. I am happy that I have successfully learned to control my discriminate anger but I still have some ways to go with my distorted anger.