Anger does not change another.
January 17, 2016
If you disapprove of the actions of another, the expression of anger seldom changes those actions. It may indeed make them more intense. You do not change another, therefore, by being angry. Change is brought about by compassion, through listening, through support, through prayer.
A child who is angry and whose actions arise out of that anger is not corrected by being punished. The child is only made more angry. It has taken a long time for humankind to accept this and to recognize its truth. It does not mean that there is no responsibility or accountability for negative behavior. It merely means that reaction to that negative behavior must not in itself be negative.
When a patient is ill, no cure is provided when the physician becomes angry. You go to a doctor to be healed, not to be corrected in a punitive sense. The healing takes place because you are willing to be healed.
