The Body's Role In Anger

Like it or not (I vote for 'not'), we are all in bodies. These vessels move us from place to place and there is a maintenance required that can be tiring, expensive or even problematic. Namely: sleeping, eating, exercise and regular physician visits. The body is also used for adornment, pleasure seeking, violence, nurturing and other human endeavors beyond just the movement of parts to the next location.

Vanity and pain are about the body. And the first is mentioned, because I used vanity for a very long time to care for my body. I didn't really care about longevity or cardiovascular fitness in my 20s and 30s, I just wanted to look cute in a bathing suit. But the eating and exercise required to keep my body in bathing-suit-form was actually a recipe for health as well. When I limited my intake of things like alcohol, fast food, caffeine, sugar and other "thrill inducers," my body got leaner.

Recently, I decided I don't care about that anymore. And I started to "fall off the wagon" with regard to eating right and exercise. I didn't care if I had a little belly or some extra bottom. But, what started to happen was skeletal issues, back pain so intense I'd liken it to labor pains. I'm not sure if it was the more sedentary lifestyle, but right when I thought I could stop the disciplined routine, my body had other ideas. And now I have pain, instead of vanity, to keep me in check with three things: food, exercise and STRESS or ANGER.

When I get stressed, I know from my research that my body starts a process where it starts taking large amounts of stored nutrients to deal with the external "threat." Even if that threat is just a few snarky emails back and forth between a coworker and myself. I can feel my lower back seize during these times, and as much as I hate my "back flares", they are serving as a reminder that if I don't want 24 hours of excruciating pain, I better chill and do it quickly and genuinely.

In addition, the chemicals released into my bloodstream during these episodes will continue to read as "false positives" until they are flushed from my system through water, perspiration and respiration. In the meantime, the chemicals are telling my brain, 'Beware! Be nervous! Be tense!" It's a bit of a vicious circle.

I offer this to you today, as a possible way to keep yourself in check with anger and the physical ramifications it has on the body. Many are unseen by us, but our physicians report them to us (diabetes from comfort eating, alcohol abuse, cigarettes, high blood pressure and so on). Perhaps I am lucky (though it sure doesn't seem that way to me), that I have such a high consequence to pay for stress and anger that I am currently not willing to "go there" for much these days.

I just can't stand the pain.