I’ve always been one of those people that defines my world as increments of life energy. My life energy is the most valuable thing I have to offer to anyone, be it my child, my husband or the Bank of America. Life energy is the expression of me through my work, my attention, my love and my actions.
My life energy is a reflection of my values and commitments. My commitment to my children is endless and that is reflected in the time, money, emotion and work that I invest in them. Any of these things can be called life energy; all of these things reflect the commitment that you make to your life.
I am always surprised when people invest a lot of energy into their own anger. They will recount their stories of frustration and anger, over and over and over again. It is as if they cannot get enough of this recountenance. Each time the story is told, the person gets angry all over again, as if getting angry again was somehow redemptive.
I have watched people tell me stories about an ex-husband (that has been gone for 10 years) who did something damning and perhaps unjust. The person will get so angry that they can froth at the mouth. I can almost see their life force ebbing away. Anger is such a huge investment of life energy. It’s not the initial anger that I am pointing to here; it is the idea of hanging onto that anger. When you hang onto that anger and re-express the anger over and over again you are investing a lot of life energy into nothing. There is no good outcome for this behavior.
If you keep adding up your anger over the years, and you hang onto it each incident, grasping it for all it’s worth, your anger can squeeze out other things in your life. It’s just a universal law that two things cannot be in one space. So, what are all the things that are blocked from your life because your anger is so huge that it consumes you and your life energy?