Among people involved in the personal development scene, anger gets a bad rap. Yes, I recently wrote on how to stop being angry and forgive. But it’s good to have a reminder as to why we feel angry, and how it functions, in order to make a more informed choice about how to deal with it.

Essentially, anger arises because we feel disempowered. Being angry is a way to get our power back.

For those interested in the energetics, this tends to happen in the third chakra, located in the solar plexus. This is the center of our power… and is why we can get an upset stomach if we’re nervous or distraught. (Regardless of your opinion on chakras, everyone knows the feeling of butterflies in the stomach, so go with that if nothing else.) Energetically, we are literally demanding our power back.

But the basic strategy for getting it usually doesn’t work. More details forthcoming in part 2.