Practical meditation for managing anger and healing the hurts they come from

It took me a very long time to realize that my anger came from hurt. From feeling like I had no control. Going back further, from being bullied, from surviving abuse, from the belief that these things happened to me because I was inherently awful. That it was my fault people hurt me. My outward anger really was anger directed at myself. I have felt so angry at myself my whole life, because I felt like I deserved every bad thing that happened. A lot of it is also of course from being generally maladapted to this world. Even for those who aren’t trauma survivors, being raised by well-meaning but maladapted and wounded parents absolutely seeds uncontrollable anger within us. 

These meditation tracks are so varied that each time I start a new one, I feel like I’m learning something totally new. Each experience presents us with safe guidance into our anger–because if we want to heal and evolve, we need to get in there to untangle the knots. I think the reluctance to enter into our own issues keeps a lot of people too scared to do the work. They won’t like what they see so they’d rather not see it. Even though it’s a miserable way to live, people would rather stay with something that is familiar (anger, negative patterns and beliefs) than let that unhealthy foundation crumble so they can start over. 

Developing compassion for ourselves (and others, but first it has to start with us) takes a lot of patient rewiring. There are guided meditations here for each seed of anger–conflict, loneliness, confrontation, anxiety, depression, addiction (whether substance, gambling, etc), over-thinking, frustration, hate, pain, fatigue. Some of them have affirmations, which are my favorite way to deprogram my mind. Tip: if an affirmation gives you a reaction, it’s a sign you need to work on that belief, as uncomfortable as it may be. 

There’s even a meditation for teenagers, which I love. We need to start early with this stuff. I wish I had known about these tools as a kid. It would have saved me a lot of pain when I finally stepped out into the “adult world.”

But, no regrets. We are all exactly where we need to be. If you still have a lot of anger and hurt inside, give these meditations a try. And remember to be patient and kind to yourself during the process. 

Listen to Meditations to Help Reduce & Control Anger and more self improvement audio programs on Audiojoy — download free on iOS or Android.

Content Review byTehya Smith