Fighting The Demon of Anger

Paul instructs us in Romans 12:21 thusly: "Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good." I recently had an important insight into how this works. When someone does you wrong, and you want to forgive them but can't seem to make it happen internally, try doing something nice for them. Buy them a gift, say a kind word to them, promote something they have done right to someone else. Sometimes acting like you've forgiven someone has to precede you actually forgiving them. You will be surprised how well this works. Beliefs and attitudes often follow action. There is some truth in the 12-step suggestion that one can 'fake it til you make it' when it comes to faith. If what you do matches the emotion you want to have, the emotion you want to have will follow.

The more you struggle with the demon of anger, the more you try to beat it down through mental struggle, the stronger it gets. But if you go out of your way to do something nice for someone, all of a sudden you find those nasty feelings disappear. I doubt this is universally true, there are probably exceptions, but I find it works very well most of the time, at least in my case. So the next time you find yourself in this situation, take Jesus advice to 'turn the other cheek' literally, and see the wonders that result. You will see the person differently, as someone who deserves forgiveness, as a good person who deserves good things who may have made a mistake. You will feel better about yourself, and you will feel the power of God come alive within you.

Something to ponder: a lot of people who are into philosophy of mind are talking about embodied consciousness and cognition these days. This is a branch of the sciences of the mind that deals with the interconnection between our bodies and our conscious experience. For instance, notions of good and bad are instinctively associated with notions of higher and lower. And when we are absorbing information, we instinctively lean forward. The physical response and the conscious experience, the phenomenology, are intertwined. I wonder if this insight has some connection to this. What is really amazing is how transcendent it makes you feel to do this sort of thing. Jesus and Paul really knew what they were talking about here.