The Christmas season is upon us. Peace, love, happiness…..all that shit. This time of year we are supposed to be extra thankful for our blessings, seeking the good in this world, sharing our resources with the less fortunate, and renewing our faith in humanity. Sounds about right. (?)

What if, in the midst of this yuletide love in, you find yourself reacting to an endless stream of disrespect, selfishness, and manipulation? And what if this behavior is coming from within your own clan? What if you’ve given all your love, time, energy and dignity without a shred of appreciation in return? This treatment could bring anyone to tears. Or, you could allow yourself to be angry.

We are conditioned to handle stress, drama, and opposition with diplomacy. Although I’d agree with that idea most of the time, THERE COMES A TIME THAT WE ALL NEED TO GET REALLY PISSED OFF AND UNLEASH SOME ANGER.

There is only so much negativity one can take before tweeking out. And when you’re a generally happy, live and let live type of person, your uncharacteristic, reactionary outburst is seen as a meltdown of sorts. Really?

Is it unfathomable that ANGER, in it’s purest form, can be therapeutic?

Bottling up emotions is no way to deal with stress. Eventually, that cork will pop. But now that you’ve let your gasket blow, everyone around you is taken aback by harsh honesty spoken loudly with passion.

“Watch your blood pressure.” – Guess what assholes, I am watching it. I’m watching it increase with every indignation suffered at your hand. And I see it decrease when I allow myself to release adrenaline.

Although we may say things in anger that we’ll later regret, the release is necessary. I am guilty of telling loved ones that I hate them. Sad, unfortunate, but EXACTLY how I felt in the moment.

I’m not campaigning for anger to replace rational thinking, but I believe it has a place in sound mental health.

We’re allowed to laugh, cry, love. These emotions are not questioned because they are considered socially acceptable. Fuck that.

Freak out if you need to. Acknowledge your anger, then let it go. It may not be pretty, and you may upset people when you finally allow yourself to open up, but these same people are likely the reason for your stress.

Anger is underrated. We need the dark emotion sometimes. It reminds us that we have choices. We choose how to treat each other, how to live, how to love. Make it difficult, or make it matter.

Take my advice, choose the latter.