The Benefits Of Walking Away When Anger Arises
There are short-term and long-term benefits to creating space when fear-based emotions like anger show up. Here's a quick look at those bennies.
Emotions arise as part of our everyday human existence. Emotions are based on two categories, love and fear. Love includes happiness, fulfillment, and respect. Fear-based emotions are anger, lack, and disrespect.
This afternoon, Mrs. Hunter and I just felt disrespected during a meeting. So, we walked away.
The immediate benefit of walking away when anger arises is creating space. Space will allow the rational mind to come back into play. Anger and other fear-based emotions cause irrational thinking and behavior. Best to avoid that.
The longer-term benefit of walking away allows you to come up with a plan. After feeling disrespected by this particular company, Mrs. Hunter and I have come up with a rational plan to express our disappointment in the overpromised and underdelivered benefits.
Finally, walking away gives you the ability to control the situation and handle it on your terms, not theirs.
Here's another quick tip. Assess where in your body your fear-based emotions manifest. For example, when anger arises I feel it in my jaw. It's that first signal that my fight-or-flight response is kicking in. Noticing it early gives me an advantage before I start acting a fool.
So if you feel anger creeping in, that's a great time to create space by walking away and returning to the situation when you are rational and ready.