Did someone teach you it’s bad to be angry? Do you stuff your anger down and turn it on yourself (which can be very mean to you!)? Or do you splatter it all over everyone else, so they have to deal with it and you don’t?

Of the seven deadly sins, anger seems like one of the scariest when it’s unmodulated, but in this episode Dana shares how it can be a source of power and strength, too. To get beyond these platitudinous descriptions, you’ll have to listen.

Dana talks candidly about a couple times she felt rage well up inside her, and it leaked (exploded) out with awkward consequences. Amy demonstrates her lion’s roar, which also leaked (exploded) out with awkward consequences. Both Amy and Dana talk about the anger patterns in their upbringing and how those impact their current approaches to anger. Amy talks about the lengths she goes to in order to keep her fuse long enough to protect the people she loves from her quick-to-anger tendencies. Are her measures too extreme?

And they talk about how women are more often socialized not to be angry, but there’s a lot of harm that can come in turning anger back in on yourself when it doesn’t have a healthy outlet, including depression.

As Amy writes this, she’s getting kinda mad thinking about the relationship between perceived “bossiness” and anger, too, which we didn’t really touch on in this episde. We feel another episode coming on…. So much to talk about!

Let us know your thoughts, your challenges, and your tips for combating harmful expressions of anger.