Leave that "D" Behind

 Leave that "D" Behind 

  

Photo By: Jiva

Up here in the Northeast, winter can be a cruel old codger.

Most seasons, we don't get a walloping huge snow dump all at once.  That would be tough enough to cope with.

No, instead we get an inch one day, then two inches the next day, then another inch the day after that.  It's those day-after-day increments that start to wear on you after a while.  The snow never seems to go away.  It's the relentlessness of it that bothers people.

The same thing happens in our relationships, the decisions we make and the actions we take.

Studies have shown that anger can remain in our minds and our emotional makeup for up to five days.  In other words, once you get angry, it can take five days for that boil to come back down to a simmer.

Think about that.  You may tell yourself, "Well, I usually only get mad once or twice a week."  But even at that pace, the anger never truly subsides.  It's like that day-after-day snowfall.  The anger never goes away, it never leaves you, either at the psychological or physiological level.  Simply put, even if you only get angry once or twice a week, that still means you are always angry.

Who would choose to live like that?

The message here is not that it's always bad to express anger.  Sometimes that's the most appropriate response.  But realizing the overlapping effect of repeated bursts of anger - even when they seemingly occur far apart - should cause us to consider the effects, and whether alternative options should be pursued.

The trick is to look inward.  Try to minimize the impact of external sources of stress.  The only person you can truly control and influence consistently is you.  The decisions you make about how to react to external impulses affect you most directly. 

It only takes one letter to go from "anger" to "danger."  Leave that "D" behind.

Be Well,

Eric