The Subconscious Cause of Anger

Have you ever reacted with anger to something someone else did and regretted it afterwards?

Of course you have — because you're human!

But sometimes we find that these angry reactions have become a pattern of behaviour — not just an occasional problem — and when we try to change the pattern, it seems almost entirely out of our control.

Sometimes people think that expressing the anger will let it out and solve the problem — but expressing the anger actually makes it worse, because it strengthens the justification in the mind that caused the anger in the first place.

What is actually needed is a way to dissolve the justification that causes the anger to arise at all.

And the best way I've found to do this is to remove the belief systems that the justification is built on.

Here's the method:

After you react with anger and regret it, close your eyes, recall the situation that triggered your anger, and ask yourself:

"What was I believing in this situation?"

Then notice the first thing that comes up in response to that question, which will be a belief about how you think things should have been, but weren't.

For example, beliefs might come up like:

• He shouldn't have spoken to me that way
• She shouldn't have disrespected me
• He should have listened to me
• People shouldn't behave like that

We all have these kinds of beliefs operating unconsciously most of the time, but which pre-determine that we will react angrily in certain situations — all because we feel we have been wronged according to our beliefs about how things should be.

Once you have identified the belief using the question above, all you need to do now is clear the belief using the Belief Shifting method.

Then, the next time a similar situation happens, notice how you react.

If the anger is completely gone, your work is done.

But if it's still there to some degree, simply repeat the process — identifying another belief supporting the justification behind the reaction — until there is no justification left because the belief system supporting it has been completely dismantled.