In today’s episode John and Jim continue their series of conversations on mental and emotional wellbeing. Today’s pod focuses on the most human of emotions . . . anger . . . and increases our understanding of this emotion’s ability to complicate our life if we don’t handle it skillfully.

Listen to the audio version here. The video version is located here.

Here are the show notes:

We’re in the middle of a series of episodes on mental and emotional well-being. In Episodes 174–175 we unpacked how to obey the third part of the greatest commandment – “love yourself” and how becoming our own best friend is foundational to long term wellness.

Our country is experiencing a pandemic in terms of mental and emotional health, especially among junior high and high school age kids. Many therapists believe one of the major culprits in most cases of major depression is the mishandling of anger.

One thing many people don’t know about anger is it doesn’t magically dissipate on its own. If we don’t tell anger where to go, it will take us to places we don’t want go.

Ephesians 4:26: “In your anger, do not sin.”

5 Anger fundamentals

• Anger is a human emotion – it happens when someone violates you or takes something from you or crosses a healthy relational boundary you’ve set
• Anger is a secondary emotion – Greg Smalley: “Anger is usually a response to something else . . . an unmet need, a dashed hope, a sense of injustice, or we feel like someone has control over us.”
• Anger is sometimes the right emotion – Some appropriate occasions for anger? When a friend you love and trust betrays you.
• Anger is a revealing emotion – it calls attention to root issues we need to address.
• Anger can be a devastating emotion – Unmanaged and unprocessed anger is a key contributor to major depression.

Places where not to tell our anger to go:

• To eating chocolate
• To social media
• To caving in
• To blaming
• To submerging