About Vernon Howard
Vernon Howard brings to life the underlying harmony of a wide variety of
carefully selected and supremely valuable wisdom teachings, spanning
thousands of years. This saves you a great deal of time and helps you focus
in on the practical and essential. His publications are enjoyed by more than
eight million readers in several languages. www.SuperWisdom. com
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A New View of "Anger Management"
Compiled by Tom Russell
"Anger Management" is a popular term today but anger must be
understood and dissolved at its source. It cannot really be "managed" any
more than a tiger can be managed. A tiger caged may appear controlled, but
all you've really done is suppress his tendencies, which can erupt at anytime.
We must be careful not to mistake suppression of anger as the healing of
anger.
Understanding the tremendous importance of this subject, Vernon Howard
wrote a remarkable 64-page booklet entitled, Conquer Harmful Anger - 100
Ways . Understand anger and its real causes and you will go along way
toward a supremely successful spiritual journey.
Here are ten of Vernon Howard's one hundred ways from his marvelous
booklet:
1. NEW SELF Don't fear to drop your anger. Nothing bad will happen to
you, nothing at all. What will happen is the arrival of everything good.
When you first drop anger you will feel an emptiness which seems scary.
You will wrongly assume that you are losing yourself , which you are not.
What you are losing is all that has hurt and scared you all your life, which
will be replaced by a new self. So the sooner you drop your anger the
sooner you will be truly happy.
2. THE GORILLA Realize that anger serves no true need, that it performs
no necessary service. It is as useless as a gorilla in a business office. But
the habit of anger does not want you to see this, for like that gorilla, it likes
to hang around to bully and bother you. A new power must enter to
interrupt anger. That power is to SEE . When you really see something as
useless, what happens? You let it go, you drop it. So just see anger as
pointless. Your insight into it is power over it.
3. IN LOVE You become what you love. On the harmful side of this law,
you may fall in love with negative thoughts which then become your
habitual nature. On the healthy side, you can love what you sense is not a
part of hostile thoughts, and you finally become this absence of hostility.
You also love what you become. On the negative side, this is a state of
hardened neurosis and self-worship. On the positive side, it is a flexible life
in which you love only Truth.
4. SUPERB STUDY Use this exercise when a crisis tempts you to fall into
anger. Just tell yourself, "I can fight or I can learn. Which way is on my
side?" Answer in favor of learning. Use this everywhere. Suppose
someone's hostility makes you feel bad. Choose to learn all about the
situation. You will then see that his hostility is not important to you. Only
your learning is important, for you can study your distress out of existence.
5. BRAVE ACT One inner bravery is worth more than a thousand
valorous acts applauded by society. Here is how to develop a bravery that
takes complete command of life. Keep a mental or written record of the
number of times you are angry within a single day. Make a note of every
self-harming thought, feeling, remark, act. Your aim is not to condemn
yourself but to reveal as wrong everything that masqueraded as right. The
wrongness you face you also erase.
6. NEW LOVE Never feel ashamed to think about your angry nature.
Shame has no place at all, for you are doing something truly brave, healthy,
descent. Just pass thru the scare and you will meet the cure. Fear and guilt
will try to take you over in an attempt to block your recovery, but just ignore
them. Simply observe inner hostility as impersonally as you study a
smoldering volcano. You will soon fall out of love with the false thrill of
anger. A new love for life will replace it.
7. WEIRD WORLD Watch for these peculiar people. Don't let their
madness make you mad. a. A man who needs a crowd of fifty-thousand to
proclaim his independence. b. People who prefer attacking over
understanding. c. Someone who wants to find you guilty. d. Helpful friends
who make sure that you see they are. e. Anyone who comes close to warn
you of pickpockets. f. Someone who would rather get mad than get free. g.
A boldly talkative faker. h. Lost people who sell maps.
8. SECRET METHOD Relax your way upward! Deliberate and sudden
relaxation is a secret power you should practice daily. Suppose you feel
tempted to give in to someone when you know you should not. Instantly fall
into internal relaxation. Breathe away your tensions. Your habitually
anxious and resentful attitudes will fall away like leaves from a tree. They
will be replaced by a clear mind that reveals what is best for you. Now you
can do the best.
9. UNSEEN FUEL Want the fire of anger to fade out? Stop adding fuel!
Try to see how you are tossing more logs on the fire without realizing it.
Believing in a gloomy nature is fuel. Not seeing inner development as a law
of life is more fuel. Obeying a harmful suggestion from your own mind is
still more fuel for the fire of anger. Attention to this changes your whole
appearance. The old fire gives way to a new glow, which is forever.
10. NEW THOUGHTS A famous spiritual teacher was noted for his short
and pointed advice. One day a worried woman came to see him to
repeatedly go over her sad story of loss, pain, persecution. When the teacher
asked her if she wanted a complete solution to all her problems she nodded
her head. The teacher then told her, "Think about different things." He was
telling her that solutions reside above the level of problems. So continue to
climb upward. Happiness is higherness.
copyright 2004 by T.H. Russell copyright 1982 by New Life Foundation
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