Anger at Things We Can’t Control

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Negative Blips in my Law of Attraction in Action series. Someone wrote and asked how to handle anger at things you can’t control. There’s so much poverty, brutality, hunger, violence, discrimination, etc. going on around the world. Watching the news and seeing or hearing about mass murders and all the other horrible occurrences and inequities can make your blood boil. It does mine. But these things can hurt you if you let them. The earthquake in Haiti can knock the faith out of you if you let it.

It’s important to put what you can and can’t do into perspective, and try to focus on what you CAN do.

There’s a lot of negatives and injustices. Feeling angry about terrible circumstances around the globe doesn’t solve the problem. It does keep you from feeling happy, and makes you feel helpless. You’re one person and as such can only do so much. My heart breaks every time I see a report from Haiti. At times I wish I were a doctor so I could volunteer to help there. And if I were a millionaire I’d send a lot more than I did. But I’m neither, and must live as who I am.

Wallowing in awful things being done to good people just means there’s one more person with a life that’s being hurt.

Life goes on. It’s hard to resolve anger at people suffering or being treated horribly or anything that focuses on misery. I live in NYC and had a lot of anger after 9/11. Every time I looked out my window and saw the smoke rising from what was the World Trade Center, I wished I could hurt the people who caused the loss of all those lives. It was also the loss of serenity for so many of us. For a long time my heart raced every time I heard a plane flying low. I still jump when I hear fireworks when I’m not expecting them.

But I must take care of me and not let anger at terrorists consume me. It keeps me stronger to do what I can as an individual to help others.

It’s easy to get angry at injustice and hard to put it into perspective. But we must, to keep our sanity and our positive emotions strong. Often the anger is a manifestation of frustration at not being able to do more. I still need to watch the Haiti reports but will eventually cool it or it will drive me mad that I can’t run down there with food, water and medicine. But I can’t, and must accept that without anger, just as you need to accept things that are out of your control.

Do the best you can for the cause that angers you.

Donate money. Volunteer in whatever capacity is appropriate. Join organizations that try to remedy what you can’t do alone. But don't immerse yourself too far in the suffering. Appreciate that what you do helps others and that’s enough to feel good. Getting angry at things that are out of your control serves no purpose other than making you feel bad. Personally, I like feeling good. And the better you feel, the more you energy you have to give to others.

Many times I’ve reminded myself of the saying, you can’t save the world but you can save a little piece of it.

One person can’t do it all but together we can do a lot. Every little bit helps. Look at the texting campaign to raise money for Haiti. If you text one of the numbers, you donate $10 that your cell phone company bills you for. The people who began this program knew that if you can afford to have a cell phone, you can afford ten bucks. You don’t need a credit card or to spend time doing it. Just text and it’s done!

Many people might think that 10 bucks won’t do much but they raised many millions when all the donations added up.

And they’ll continue to raise more millions since this is a long term effort to help Haiti and its people recover. For those of you who want to do something to help, here are some organizations that are helping and need donations. Don’t be put off if $50 is the lowest amount to check off andn you can't afford that. Look for “other” and give what you can. I’ve donated to several so I’m not making huge donations at any.

* American Red Cross is a no-brainer. They were in Haiti immediately with help.
* Oxfam is always quick to respond with help.
* Doctors without Borders sends the medical care so desperately needed.
* Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is run by former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
* World Vision works to help the children.
* Caring House Project Foundation A few weeks ago I posted an interview with Frank McKinney, who talked about how he builds whole villages for people in Haiti. Many were destroyed during the earthquakes. Frank went down to Haiti and his team rescued people from the ruins. Now they need donations to help rebuild.

Don’t let terrible circumstances around the world bring you down or make you so angry you can’t let it go.

You owe it to yourself to stay strong and pursue your happiness. Put the bigger circumstances into perspective and make an effort to do something. A little is great too. When I heard a news report about how 70 people were rescued after 90+ hours of being buried, someone commented that it was a shame that ONLY 70 had been found, like it wasn’t great.

Every life saved is great! Ask the people and their families how great it was. Every person saved is a blessing. So is every small effort on your part. Feel GOOD about what you do and pray for the world. But don’t let terrible situations far from your life ruin your joy. It doesn’t help the situations but it does hurt you.

I can’t emphasize it enough—anger does you NO good! It probably will hurt you. Is that what you want?

If not, release your anger in positive ways by taking care of yourself and doing what you can for causes you feel strongly about. Trade anger for passion about doing your part.

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