In a time of great discord, use your anger for effective action
0 CommentsThe full moon on Samhain, or All Hallow’s Eve (Oct. 31), is also considered the Hunter’s Moon. How can you utilize the fiery, warrior energy available right now to learn from what’s come before (your ancestors) while focusing with hunter-like precision on strategies and solutions that will benefit the most over the long-term?
You may be feeling uneasy. An engrossing sense of injustice. The gravity of the role each of us has played in mindsets, mentalities, systems and schemes that reek of the stench of imbalance. And even with the exhaustion and overwhelm, you may be feeling your anger for the first time in a long while. Or, your grief is simply cloaked in what appears to be anger right now.
You’re seeking justice. Longing for some sense of control again. Done with the status quo. Any talk of “returning to normal” thrown carelessly to some corner of your life at this point. Like last year’s crumpled Holloween mask littering a crowded floor that’s felt like avoiding land mines to cross it these last many months.
“Conjunct Uranus, this Full Moon brings perhaps an unwelcome change and a rebellious streak that is unpredictable. If you are feeling like your fur has been rubbed the wrong way, there is no right side of the bed, and nothing sits quite right, don’t worry. Discord is cosmic too.”
Chani Nicholas from “Horoscopes for the Full Moon in Taurus”
This is the second of two full moons in one month. Considered the Hunter’s Moon: where we line our stores with meat enough for the long winter ahead. This full moon, usually grounded by the Taurean energy it shines in, is more like a spirit, disembodied and shrieking… frantically searching for something to cling to again.
Inspired by Astrologer and Author, Chani Nicholas‘s readings for this full moon cycle, how can we use the anger we’re feeling (at ourselves, one another, our systems and the schemes we’ve all played a complicit role in creating)?
How can our anger, like a flame of clarity that calls and holds our attention, unflinchingly, help us focus on long-term strategies and solutions that benefit the most?
Turn the fire of anger into a single flame that guides you toward holistic solutions
“This isn’t a moon that helps us stabilize. As the Sun in Scorpio stirs up the kind of intense emotion that renders us raw, a Full Moon in Taurus is meant to be our rock to rest on in the undoing.
Chani Nicholas from “Horoscopes for the Full Moon in Taurus”
However, this one only further emphasizes the tectonic shifts we are in the midst of. What happens from the end of October to the beginning of November may be surprising so it is imperative that we do whatever we can to keep ourselves and our systems oriented towards long-term solutions and strategies.”
How can we turn the frustration and anger we’re feeling into more effective action?
- Don’t be the one to judge your anger
- Make friends with the fire you feel
- Allow anger to clarify
- Follow the flame
1. Don’t be the one to judge your anger
The first step is not to judge or shame yourself or others for feeling their anger. Even when it scares you. Especially when it feels unresolveable.
Give your anger some space. Let it be here.
Allowing it to be here is the most compassionate act you can take right now. Allowing it to be here without judgement or needing it to be any different is what will also allow its transformation.
The exact way you offer space to your anger will be unique to you. But, some ideas for offering yourself space to feel your anger include:
- Taking distance from others who may not be able to give your anger space.
- Finding a safe space where you can express your anger if it feels like it’s too much to physically hold and it needs to move through your body.
Once you’re in a safe space where another won’t be surprised or scared or hurt by your expression of anger, move your body.- Try stomping your feet on the earth
- Shaking every limb and part of your body in every direction
- Pounding or punching a pillow
- Finding a quiet space alone where you can simply be with your anger and get to know it better.
2. Make friends with what’s fuel for action
Get to know why your anger is here. Anger is often a protective veil for other emotions like unfairness, disappointment, hurt and grief.
Get to know your anger by asking yourself these questions:
- Is my anger a protector?
- Does my anger want justice and fairness?
- Is my anger standing up for me where I haven’t until now?
- Does my anger believe something should be different?
3. Allow anger to clarify
Once you’ve allowed your anger to stay and you know more about why your anger is here, ask it what it wants to change?
- If your anger is acting as a protector, ask it what it’s protecting.
- If your anger wants justice and fairness, inquire about what it believes is unfair or unjust.
- If your anger is standing up for you (where you haven’t until now), ask it why it needs to play that role and how you can help.
- If your anger believes something should be different, what is it? Ask your anger about how things should be different.
4. Follow the focused flame of your anger toward more effective action
Now that you’ve allowed your anger some space for it to be without judgement, and you know why it’s here and what it needs to change about your current reality, let it guide you.
On November 12th, Jupiter makes its third and final conjunction to Pluto at 22° of Capricorn. This just so happens to be the exact degree where Saturn and Pluto made a conjunction on January 12th, 2020.
Chani Nicholas from “Horoscopes for the Full Moon in Taurus”
The Saturn/Pluto conjunction is always a game-changer, era-defining in its ability to strip us of the privileges we so often take for granted. An astrological signature that exposes the infrastructures of our world, our systems, and our relationships, when it comes around (every 33-38 years) it often speaks to an issue that humanity at large must deal with.
Is this about the past, the present or the future?
Identify when the change happened that you couldn’t accept at the time. Does the anger come up when you’re thinking about the past or a memory?
Or does the anger emerge when you’re feeling powerless or helpless about the future? Or when you’re dreaming about what has yet to be.
If your anger is about the past…
If your anger comes from a memory or experience in your current lifetime or otherwise, how can you act as an advocate for your past self (or that of an ancestor or people)?
In what ways can you use your present set of circumstances and resources, your present mindset and clarity and compassion to be in service to this past? Not by getting stuck in its murkiness. But, by calling upon all of your resources to acknowledge what happened and the role you are playing in it.
Allow the fury to identify one, small thing you can do right now to support and advocate for that angry part of yourself who wanted your safety, protection, fairness and justice for you or your people. That part of you that just couldn’t stand to see you hurt and grieving.
If your anger is about a present situation
First, deal with the immediate rise of energy in your body that we covered in the section on not judging your anger above. Once you’ve moved the energy through your body or expressed it in a way that is safe for you and others, address it as close to the present moment it happened in as you can.
As yourself these questions about what’s causing your anger in the present?
- Has my boundary been crossed? What is it and how?
- Do I feel misunderstood? How?
- Do I feel uncared about? Am I not feeling valued by someone or in a situation? Which is it and how am I feeling this way?
- Do I feel like I don’t belong? How so?
With this pause to deal with the immediate energy in a safe way along with understanding what sort of transgression may be causing your present anger you can approach it with the person(s) you need to in a more effective way.
Schedule individual time to check in with the person(s) and share the impact their behavior had on you. A great way to approach them is using this simple nonviolent communication technique:
“When you {share their behavior here},
the impact is that {share the impact here without any judgments or stories. Only the facts}.
What I would prefer in the future is that you {share preference for behavior here}.”
If your anger is about the future…
If your anger feels helpless, hopeless or unmotivated about the future, what is one small thing you can do in your present to advocate on behalf of your future self?
- What can you clarify next time to reduce the anger?
- Who can you talk to or strategize with for future support?
- Is there a way you can communicate more clearly to make sure there
isn’t a next time? - What action can you take on behalf of yourself so you don’t find yourself in this same situation again?
Understanding the role you play right now and taking ownership of the role you play in your own emotions puts you back in a position of power.
Ultimately, we only have control over ourselves: how we react, how we respond, what we feel and do. So, get clear on the role you played in the situation or dynamic causing your anger, and then act as an advocate in support of your future self to mitigate the potential for an angry repeat in the future.
When you turn toward yourself in the past, the present or the future and take time to allow your anger space, express it safely, befriend it and allow it to clarify your path forward, you’re building trust. And that trust not only benefits you in the present and the future, but it will greatly benefit the whole.
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Beginning in 2011, she invested more deeply in her own mindfulness exploration and education as a Sahaja yoga/meditation guide and two-time apprentice of spiritual teacher and humanitarian, Vanessa Stone. Carolyn is an Ayurvedic Sadhana Consultant, having completed training in 2018 under her teacher, Maya Tiwari. Maya served for two decades as a Vedic monk belonging to India’s prestigious Veda Vyasa lineage and is the founder of Wise Earth School of Ayurveda.
Carolyn is currently immersed in her practicum after graduating from a two-year comprehensive Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy practitioner training through Hakomi Institute Southwest.
Founder of Conscious Content, a mindfulness movement for business that serves the greater collective good, her intention is to bring ancient mindfulness technology first to individuals, and then their teams and organizations to connect them more authentically with themselves, one another, and their tribe.
Conscious Content’s guiding inquiry is: what would business look like if work became our sadhana—our personal growth practice?
Her chosen name, Koa, is of Hawaiian origin and means fearless and courageous.
Her given surname, Elder, is of Scottish origin and signifies one who is wiser, older and quite possibly born near the Elderberry tree.
