Episode 177: Dealing with Anger – Interview Lara Johnson

Episode 177: Dealing with Anger - Interview Lara Johnson

Welcome back to the Love Your Story podcast. Today we are talking about ANGER and how to deal with it. Anger, like all the “negative” emotions we feel, is often something we feel like we have to suppress in order to be a “good” person. But what happens when we suppress our feelings rather than allow and experience them? I’m not advocating for zero self-control, rather I want to explore with you a real life story that can show us what suppressed anger can do to us and how acceptance and allowance of our emotions helps us heal.

Today my guest is Lara Johnson. After being molested as a child Lara was angry. Anger became her constant companion, but also her shackles. Giving herself permission to BE angry changed her life and allowed her to move on once and for all.

Stay tuned to hear her story and to talk to this now certified life coach as she helps us with tips and understanding for dealing with our own emotions.

Tune in to the audio program to hear Lara's interview.

Thick That Hang said, in The Heart of the Buddhas’s teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation, “Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.” 

and, Mark Twain said, 

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” 

All our emotions, the ones we label “good” and “bad,” are perhaps all here to teach us love. In this case the idea of self-love being key - giving ourselves permission to feel what we feel and love ourselves through those emotions we label as “negative” or “bad.” When the key to healing is allowing space for us to feel our way through the experience without judgement of ourselves, we can move more smoothly forward through our lives. We propel ourselves forward through the experiences that feel like road blocks. So much easier said than done, especially because this allowing may be in direct conflict with how you’ve been trained - not to allow a place for “bad” emotions. But today’s discussion is a beam of light on how we make it through with love and grace.

Your challenge this week is to choose a powerful emotion you are feeling - something WILL come up this week, and instead of fighting it off or feeling bad for feeling it, practice sitting with it and just letting it be with you for a bit, without judgement. Ask it how long it needs to stay and notice what it may be protecting you from. Some of these insights will give you the clarity to accept with love.

Thanks for being here today. Don’t forget you can get your copy of LIFE - Living Intentional and Fearless Everyday - the 21 LIFE connection challenges on Amazon - start the 21 Challenges to create more self-care, more connection and more possibility in your own life or give it as a gift and help someone else create these wonderful things in their life.

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Have a great week creating your best life story.