Set Yourself Free from Suppressed Anger, Rage, and Sadness
Discover How Deep Sadness is Often a Mask for Anger and How to Yield the Incredible Healing Power of Releasing Anger and Rage
It’s not uncommon for one to experience waves of anger, rage or other intense emotions during a breathwork session. And it’s important to understand the underlying reasons behind these emotions and what to do about them. In this article, we will explore how sadness is often a mask for suppressed anger, why releasing anger and other suppressed emotions is critical for your health, and the 5 things that need to happen in order to achieve this release.
The Intimate Connection Between Anger, Fear, and Sadness
Anger, fear, and sadness have a very complex relationship with each other. For example, if a parent is diagnosed with a terminal illness, the feeling their child may be aware of is sadness. But underneath the sadness is often anger at the parent for dying, for “abandoning” him or her. And, fear is involved as well – a fear of being unacceptable if she/he shows anger to a loved one.
Quoting a therapist from an article in the Transactional Analysis Journal: “If a person is stuck in sadness, I look for fear and anger that has not been dealt with”. We have seen this in many breathwork sessions where participants come in having taken anti-depressant medications for years and exhibit signs of sadness or depression. During their breathwork sessions, they slowly but surely become more aware of their anger. This awareness allows them access to the anger so that they can process and release it. This will, in general, diminish the grip their depression or sadness has on them. But none of this is absolute “proof,” it’s just a theory about the relationship between these various emotions.
Why Releasing Anger and Rage is So Important
When you release anger and/or rage during a breathwork, it is incredibly powerful. Often anger and rage are the things that your ego mind holds onto the tightest because those are the things that are the most socially unacceptable to release. Nobody likes to be around an angry person.
So when you feel anger or rage, it means that you are accessing a deep level of suppressed emotions. These emotions are very bad for your health and so long as you keep them suppressed they will remain trapped in your body. This will eventually manifest into physical health issues because your body is expending so much energy holding onto the anger or rage. So, it is incredibly healing for your body when it comes up!
There are several things that need to happen to get through to the other side:
- Understanding. Your thoughts create your emotions. So, find the thoughts that are creating the emotions, change your thinking patterns and your emotions will change also.
- Responsibility. Understand and embody the fact that you are responsible for your emotional states, 100%. Things that happen in the outside world only trigger what is already inside of you. Never project the cause of your emotions on anything in the outside world. When you project the cause onto the outside world, you make yourself into a victim and, from that state of being, you cannot consciously change your emotional state or create/manifest your desired reality. Once you take responsibility for something (in this case, your emotional states), you then become empowered to change it.
- Release. Release the emotions that you are suppressing in your body in a safe way. This means taking full responsibility and not projecting them onto the outside world. If the emotion is anger, don’t get angry at somebody else, they are not the cause of your anger. It is already there inside of you, waiting to be felt and released. You can access and release suppressed emotions in your breathwork sessions. You can also do anger and rage release exercises on your own. You grow and evolve through facing emotions like fear and anger. There is intense energy in anger and when you surrender to it and accept it, that energy can be transmuted into intense presence or awareness.
- Work Internally in the Present Moment. If anger or rage bubble up in your everyday life, make the emotions you feel part of your experience of the present moment. However do not project them outward, instead, work with them internally as they happen. This is an important part of your personal growth practice.
- Let Go of Judgement. Let go of judgment of which emotions are “good” or “bad”. They are all just messages from your inner being, and as such, are clues to what is happening in your inner world.
What to Do After an Anger Releasing Breathwork Session
If you have a rage or anger release session, you may feel exhausted afterwards, and that is perfectly okay and a good sign that you have done some deep-releasing work. If it still feels like more wants to come out after your breathwork session, go to your bedroom shut the door, and pound pillows and scream until you feel complete. After you are complete, show yourself lots of love and compassion and know that you have done an amazing favor for your body and psyche.
Closing Thoughts
The above is a very simplistic explanation and it is a process; it does not happen overnight. However, breathwork can definitely support you in the above process of feeling, healing, and personal growth.
Process & Release Anger with a FREE Month of Neurodynamic Breathwork Online
We offer 2-hour online breathwork workshops several times throughout the week so that people can take a deep dive into their inner healing with a consistent practice. If you would like to join one of our transformational sessions, and partake in faster, deeper breathing to connect to your “Inner Guidance” and process and release emotions that are no longer serving you, we invite you to register for free!
After your first free session, you will receive an email with access to a whole month of free online facilitated breathwork, up to 24 live sessions, which will allow you to continue your journey with the breath and sow the seeds for incredible and lasting change.
*Find out more about the Neurodynamic breathwork session process here.
