Through conscious awareness we are able to notice and observe our mental chatter. In “How to avoid the onset of anger” by ancient philosopher Seneca, we can find a list of reasons for avoiding anger. Most importantly, it seems like he is inviting us to consider self-awareness as a tool to avoid or neutralize the contemplation of negative thoughts. We can clearly see this when he writes, “A mighty mind its true self-awareness will not avenge, since it has not noticed the wrong done to it” (Seneca, 1995, p. 82). Thus, it is not that the self-aware mind hasn’t noticed the negativity, but the self-aware mind does not get bothered by it because it has reached a higher level of awareness, and it knows how to peacefully deal with the negative chatter by noticing and effectively letting go.
We can see that the idea of becoming self-aware of ones thoughts isn’t new. According to Seneca, anger is an evil that should be avoided like the plague. Furthermore, anger “denies human nature” (Seneca, 1995, p.82). In other words, our innate human nature is based on peace and order. Therefore, we must stay away from anger because it results in war,chaos, and disorder.
Furthermore, this great ancient philosopher not only gave us a reason to stay away from anger, but he also gave us solutions in order to successfully avoid becoming angry. For instance, he tells us that we should hang out with positive people. We can see this when he writes, “ We should choose the most indulgent and easy-going people, the least tense and pernickety, to live with” (Seneca, 1995, p. 84). In other words, if we want to vibrate at a higher energy we need to find people who are already there. Have you ever noticed that people with a low or negative energy frequency will bring you down with them? Consequently, like a tuning fork, we start to vibrate at that same level.
To sum it all up, we must avoid anger because it only causes more problems. There are several studies that have link heart attacks and other terminal illnesses to stress and anger. In the end, We can overcome anger by becoming aware of what we are thinking in order to properly neutralize the situation, and by choosing our friends wisely.
