Yesterday, I read this article on expressing anger and getting ahead in life. It does seem contradictory. But it applies to me. Here, I'm struggling with not being able to express my anger towards other properly. That really hurts me. Like it did last month. I wish I could just start expressing my true feelings always.
For many people, especially women, much of their mental energy goes into stuffing their feelings so far down they don't even know they have them. They spend their lives pleasing others and seeking the approval of everyone but themselves.
"We are nobodies. We are in hiding. We don't know who we are," says psychologist Emilie Ross Raphael, Ph.D., of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She means "we" not in the collective sense but in the personal sense. She includes herself among those who have -- or in her case, had -- to learn how to be honest about her own feelings.
Typically, says Raphael, the problem involves always saying "yes" when often you mean "no." And, the resolution typically comes down to giving yourself permission to feel angry -- and finding the courage to say what's on your mind without fear of losing the love of others.
Until this happens, it's not possible to have a healthy relationship. Hurt feelings are inevitable in relationships, bound to arise in a fast-paced world of imperfect communication between people.
The trick is speaking them. That requires expressing anger appropriately -- one of the great challenges of being a grownup and managing ourselves. More often, people hold their feelings in. Then, at some minor infraction, they explode out of proportion to the cause -- often bewildering everyone around them.
It's not an overnight process. You have to learn to set limits with others -- and to move your sources of approval inward. "This is the story of my life," says Raphael.
"It comes from having hard-to-please parents who set high standards. When we grow up, we carry the critical parents around in our head. We become the critical ones. We are, for example, forever discounting compliments. And, we maintain a low self-image by selectively focusing on negative input from those around us."
For starters, you have to begin to think of anger as a constructive emotion. It's a signal that your feelings are hurt, and you must move into conflict resolution.
Here is Raphael's advice for expressing anger appropriately:
- Examine whether your current anger, resentment or hurt feelings are the tip of a much larger iceberg. How long have you had such feelings? If you get upset with your husband for going out with his buddies for an evening, maybe it really isn't about that instance. Perhaps the reason that you are upset has more to do with how much of himself he generally gives to you, and your feeling that it isn't enough.
- Learn to be brave. If you feel that you are easily intimidated into backing down, write down your feelings and give your writing to the other person.
- Don't make blaming statements. Conflict resolution begins with the understanding that truth is relative. So much depends on one's perspective, and none of us has a lock on the whole picture of anything. Nevertheless, most people start with exactly the most destructive question: Who is right and who is wrong? Two people spend time trying to convince the other of the rightness of his or her own position. But, in fact, most disagreements are based on interpretations that come directly from private experiences in life, not some verifiable truth.
The single best way to resolve conflict is to listen to the other party. Most people just want to be heard. It is a basic form of validation. And, often the solution suggests itself from what is spoken.
- Allow your partner to express his or her grievances. This is a good thing, because otherwise these feelings build walls between people.
- Take responsibility for your part in creating problems. Ask yourself: How did my actions and the things I've said or failed to say help to create this situation or crisis?
- It's the final step that people most commonly fall short on -- accepting responsibility for making things better.
"You need to seek out what will make the situation better in the future so this situation doesn't arise again," observes Raphael. "Further, you need to tell the other person, "this is what I need from you now to make things better." You need to take responsibility for what will fix it now! Is it merely listening? Is it an apology? Most people miss this piece."
Hara Estroff Marano is Editor-At-Large of Psychology Today magazine and Editor-In-Chief of Psychology Today's Blues Buster, a newsletter about depression. An award-winning writer on human behaviour, Hara's articles have appeared in publications including the New York Times, Smithsonian, Family Circle and The Ladies Home Journal. She lives in New York City.
