We are all living a life from morning till night, where we face situations where anger is a common and the easiest response we choose.

Extract from Rajputana Chronicles: Guns and Glories: Around 1594 AD, once Jain Acharya Jinchand Suriji was meeting Emperor Akbar in his Lahore court and asked him that how many times do you become angry in a day? Emperor replied that I have never counted but I think not a single day passes when I do not get angry and lose my temper at my wives, my children, the staff and even Dewan Karam Chand. The Acharya replied that have you ever wondered what goes on inside you after every bout of anger?

“Every second of anger or anger related emotions causes the secretion of negative chemicals and negative hormones inside the body. This is constantly harming the body and causes severe psychosomatic illnesses or illnesses caused by a negative mind, like blood pressure, diabetes, depression, insomnia and even cancer in the body. Also, the positive mood of peace, love and happiness inside our minds, can remain low for many hours, after even a smallest bout of hatred, revenge, aggression and any other toxic and negative behaviour.”

Here are a few cardinal suggestions to overcome anger:

~ Don’t Try to Change What You Can’t Change – Very often we try and change scenes in our life, which are beyond our control. Scenes of life including different situations and behaviours of people, which are not as per our desire, make us react negatively and with emotions full of anger. When we cannot change a scene, we feel frustrated and feel things are out of our control. At that point of time, remind yourself that everything cannot go our way and as per our desires in life always. Learn accept and not expect, because expectations are the seed of all anger filled emotions.

~ I Am a Source of Infinite Peace and Love – Always Remember That – We are all a beautiful source of peace and love, which we can experience all the time and share with others. Also, where there is peace and love, the power to tolerate different types of people and situations is there inside us, which makes it easy for us to remain calm and patient, instead of reacting violently. Hating someone and speaking against someone behind their backs or in front of them is all a reflection of lack of the sweet peace and love which we are full of eternally, but we forget that.

Start your day with the following affirmation: I am a being of light, a soul full of peace and love. I visualize my spiritual form, a sparkling star at the centre of the forehead. I radiate this light of sweetness to the world. Repeat this affirmation to yourself many times in a day and slowly the personality of creating angry and violent responses will be changed to sweeter and more humble responses to people and situations.

~ Forgive and Forget – Have you ever spent a complete day thinking about another person’s negative actions and giving them different forms in your mind, all of which are not only negative but hurt you internally. Such hurt carried in your heart can become a source of anger at every step and make your mind violent.

This type of carried forward anger can spill out in different situations involving you and other people and not necessarily the person who is the cause of the anger. To forgive and forget requires emotional strength. To respond with love and not react with anger is forgiveness in action. To forgive is to love unconditionally. To forget is to bring benefit to the self, because violence in the mind harms the mind, body and relationships immensely. Only when you forgive, can you forget.

To forgive, remember everyone’s original personality is one of sweetness, peace and love and a negative comment or an action of bitterness by someone is a result of an acquired negative sanskara, which is temporary and which the other person is trying to remove.