DADS LISTEN: “Reframing Anger” on NPR’s TED Radiohour

DADS LISTEN: “Reframing Anger” on NPR’s TED Radiohour with host Guy Raz.  This is a synopsis from the website: “Anger is universal and complex: it can be quiet, festering, justified, vengeful, and destructive. This hour, TED speakers explore the many sides of anger, why we need it, and who's allowed to feel it.”

I especially enjoyed this, entirely relatable, experience from host Guy Raz and the resulting dialogue with clinical psychologist Russell Kolts about how we can use compassion to manage our anger.  Dr. Kolts goes on to explain that anger can be useful in “activating us to act now”, but it is a vulnerability that needs to be addressed.  One way to manage anger, is to take steps to interrupt the momentum of anger to create some space for whatever comes next.  If you try to visualize yourself in a past experience where you were angry, and think of what encouragement you might have given yourself at that moment to “be at your best in that moment.”

“You see, that's compassion - to notice, wow, I'm really angry right now. I'm really struggling. This is really hard. Anger tries to convince us that we have to act right now, but we don't have to believe it. We can take a moment, work to balance our emotions first and then work with the situation. That's true strength. That's compassion.”