Flowing In and Out of Anger

Recently I became increasingly angry with persistent e-mail ads from a retailer where I'd bought a small item, in spite of unsubscribing countless times and even contacting their customer service (they also sent me an unsubscribe link, which I followed — to no avail).

I was carrying this resentment as if it nurtured a flame, forgetting the quote from a friend that "resentment is like taking poison and expecting someone else to die."

This is the way our patterned responses work. Not useful? Even detrimental? "Who cares?" our unconscious shouts, "It's familiar and I've got the groove!"

The most comprehensive recent suggestions I've found are from Think Simple Now. These "Fifteen Ways to Overcome Anger" are consistent with my approach to change, framed as ways to interrupt a pattern: 

When negative feelings arise, we have two choices, (1) to follow the habitual pattern we've learned since we were young, to react and allow the negativity to consume us, or (2) to interrupt the pattern we have been conditioned to follow, and in doing so build new neural pathways that allow for alternative possibilities.

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