Chapter 13 – Does Venting and Problem Resolution work?

I saw a video today of a bunch of angry people out in the woods beating the ground with sticks, screaming and freaking out, hoping to release their inner angst.

Angry people, thinking that if they vent their anger it will be good for them. Well, it does give them some exercise, and it is probably the physical exertion that makes them feel better for a while… but in the end, it will be a short lived relief. Perhaps what needs to happen is not to fix the problems outside of them. Perhaps what needs to happen is to fix their own dis-satisfaction with “the way things are”.

We can never turn “Life sucks” into “Life is great” with our negative reactions.

The issue here is that we get tied up in the web of life circumstances, and think that if we can fix those problems, if we can fix the misunderstandings in relationships, everything can get balanced. Again, this is a very good idea, and a very commendable way of thinking, rather than simply walking away from those things.

But there are myriads of issues with myriads of people, and we will get trampled by the process. We will never be a match for the sheer number of issues.

This is because of the many headed hydra problem: we deal with one head, and two grow back. And So on, and so on, and so forth, and so forth ad infinitum.

What is it about life that wishes to crush us?

Well, it isn’t life that does this to us, it is our ever growing – built up frustration and anger that makes life feel this way. We become overwhelmed.

This build up of rage inside us, in my experience, is due to three things:
1. Our expectation that we can fix issues outside ourselves.
2. Our dis-satisfaction with the world outside us, and our sense that there is something wrong with the world outside us.
3. Our expectation that if we do manage to fix things outside of ourselves, our sense of dis-satisfaction will be lessened somehow.

The problem begins and ends with our satisfaction or dis-satisfaction with our life.

We all know that if we look through a lens of negative attitude, everything we see is negative. Yet it seems like a “sell out” to instead use a lens of positivity. It seems like we are just fooling ourselves. But if we shift to a breath focused center, we do not need either a positive or a negative attitude, we can simply life in Reality.

Reality simply Is What It Is. There is a peace and relaxed state in this way of looking at the world. If we DROP our baggage, and simply see that “This is the way things Are”, then we can simply watch and let “Life Just Be.”

In fact,