Thursday, December 13, 2007

Anger-The Book Review

I found a rather negative review posted on the site that the book, Journey Into Being, A Beginning, is being sold. It upset me rather more than I thought it should so I had to sit down and examine it to determine why.What it comes down to is this. I gathered together the writings and published the book because I wanted to share my personal Journey with others so that they would know that they are not alone, and to perhaps help to point them toward their own path. It is truly from the heart, a little bit of me in every word.

I put myself out there, spiritually naked for all to see, but that was not the reason the review made me angry.After pondering and meditating for some time, I realized that I was angry because that review might turn someone away from the book without checking to see if it was something that they could identify with and perhaps gain insight from. My DH assures me that this will not happen, that one mediocre review will not defeat my purpose in publishing, and I find that I do agree with him. Those who can gain from it will find it.

Funny how even after all these years, anger can still come up and blind side a person. It also reinforces my belief that anger is not a true emotion. When we look behind it, we always find another face peeking out. Sometimes it is fear, or embarrassment, or disappointment, or other emotions we do not want to deal with. Most often, though, it is fear that I find behind the mask of anger. In this instance it was fear caused by hanging on. I needed to learn to let go of the results of my actions, instead of hovering over them like a broody hen. That light-bulb has allowed me to continue work on a second edition or a second book, Journey Into Being, A lifetime On My Path. My DH suggested I name it The Spiral Path.

When you find yourself angry over something, stop and examine that anger. You may be very surprised at what you will find there. The greatest benefit in this exercise is that once identified, anger usually slinks off into the darkness, leaving you more aware and in control than before. Each time you confront it, it is easier to banish.

This is the beginning of taming the emotions and banishing the fear that motivates ego. There are layers beyond the mask of fear that hides behind anger. I will leave it up to each one to search their hearts for the answers hidden there.

4 comments:

jon be me said...

"once identified, anger usually slinks off into the darkness, leaving you more aware and in control than before. Each time you confront it, it is easier to banish."
That is true, for me and I might add that the fits of anger become less and less after being confronted and defeated. We must face our fears to render them useless.

Zareba said...

Hi Jon:

You are so right about facing our fears. If we tuck them away in a closet, they will grow so big that we are unable to open that closet door and end up hostge to our fears.

Thanks for your comment.

...Z

Paul said...

Zareba, this is more of an aside, but wouldn't it help to have more about your book on this site? I didn't know it existed.

Also, when I google "journey into being," I get hits for another book with that title, your blog, but not your book. At least those are the first page or two of hits...

Zareba said...

Paul. Thank you. I appreciate your comments and concerns. I had not realized that the book was not getting first page hits on Google any more. I was pleased that this blog was at the top of the Google search list, but you are right that the book should be there too. I was also surprised that there were other books of the same title. That was not so two years ago.

I have retrieved my original blog comment about the book and added a preface, bringing it up to speed.The book is still available through Lulu and Amazon.