When I saw the prompt for the week, a sort of nostalgia engulfed me.
Looking at how jovial I am right now, it would be really hard to guess that I once was the most anger prone person amongst my peers and amongst my siblings. So bad that my mom called me 'Esu' meaning Devil.
Anger would destroy in the blink of an eye what took years to build, clichè as it sounds, it is the actual truth. It is something I have experienced and understood. And the truth is it doesn't really take much to be able to do better.
The journey of leaving behind the "Raging Storm" which destroyed everything in its path took a lot of intentionality on my end. The most important step was to know something was'nt right and there was a need to effect a change.
Over the years there were some steps I had to take to become better at handling my anger.
Realizing that anger doesn't necessarily correct or change what you're upset at.
Introspect to see whether the situation or the person were actually right to call my bluff on certain things.
Understand that I ought not to let people or situations dictate how I responded to their triggers.
Figured that it was me and the person against the situation and not against each other.
This isn't to excuse the fact that there are people that are just out to upset you almost like it gives them a sense of purpose. But as I have said, you are the Lord of your emotions and not the other way around. For some situations you need to give people a doze of their medicine. Aura for what?! Aura!
Yorubas have a saying that goes "werey lafin wo werey" meaning it's madness we use to heal madness. I don't totally agree with this but then there's a level of truth it carries. There are situations that warrant you respond especially if you're in a mad country like Nigeria and you accidentally live in Lagos, there's a level of toughness you must have.
I believe as a society we should learn the balance, there are times you ought to be the better person and there are times you ought to be the absolute raging storm. All you need is discernment to know which requires the storm and which requires the calm.
In conclusion how to handle this menace has two sides to it. The part of the society and the part of the individual. Since we individuals collectively make up the society it is imperative that we dig deep and work on how to handle and manage our emotions better.
And in the light of the society I think there are times when we ought to put people who haven't gotten a hang of their emotions in their place, you can use your words and when your words aren't getting through you can use oraimo cord to wipe the person's neck (this joke is for my Nigerian compatriots).
I don't endorse violence but occasionally it is the solution to curing some people's madness. Absurd as it sounds it works like magic. Give it a try today.
Image Credit is Mine
