I was studying for my comprehensive exam next week (yes, pray for me please) and came across an assignment entry I made about anger and hostility. The assigned text for this assignment was:Mind, Body and Health – The effects of attitudes, emotions and relationships. It made for an interesting read.
“I did not know that there was a difference between anger and hostility, and chapter 4 explained the difference. The text describes anger as a temporary emotion which can be a response to an event or a frustration. Thursday night, I was very angry because the battery that I just bought for my car less than two years ago died last night. I was very angry but I did not do anything radical but I did vent on my blog about it. Hostility on the other hand is an attitude and the text explains that hostile people are usually angry. It was interesting to read about expressing versus suppressing anger. I always thought that it was healthier to express anger than keeping it in. I have always believed that if you keep it in, one day it will explode with consequences. I would classify myself as a person who expresses and suppresses anger. It depends on the situation, at times I feel it is better to keep the peace and not saying anything about the situation but I am burning inside. While reading this chapter, I remembered an illustration of a boy and his parents. His dad took him to school every morning and one morning his dad was not able to drop him off, so his mom dropped him off. When they reached school, the boy asked his mom, “Where were all the idiots today?” I could say that one parent was really expressing their anger or frustration at the other drivers while the other either chose to ignore them or to her, the other drivers did not frustrate her. From this chapter, I learned that since anger is a reaction to a provocation, the healthy way for me to deal with anger is to decide how I will react and respond to a provocation.”
Oh, boy… I used to have driving issues until one day I wound up in traffic behind my grandmother. She drove very slowly and carefully (her sight was going, though we didn’t know it then) and all these people kept blowing their horns and whipping around her. I’m sure they had places they had to get to but they were scaring my grandmother, making her drive even more slowly and carefully. Before that day, I would have been one of those whipping around her. I followed her home from a distance to make sure she got home okay, but since then I have been much more forgiving of people when driving. You don’t know what their story is or why they’re driving like that.
That said, my son would rather ride with me because his dad is a jerky driver AND he curses at people who get in his way or do stupid things.