Tools, tips and education to help you live the life you choose

It was off to the snow for a day at the weekend.  I try to take the kids up once a year.  We generally find some snow and a slope near the road and spend a few hours having fun.  This year we had bought some snow sliders as they are called, basically a board with handles that they could sit on.  This is one step up from previous years when I have taken the boogey boards.  It is getting to the stage now where I am not guaranteed a go as for the first time this year Daughter took to going down by herself for part of the time.

On the way home I asked them what their favourite part of the trip was.  Daughter announced that it was eating snow!  We had been explaining on the way up that snow was like frozen water and you could eat it - so she did!  For Son it was throwing snowballs at Mum.  He was quite good at it too, there is nothing like getting a few bits of snow down your neck to remind you that you are alive.

We were discussing snowball fights yesterdays and how it is one of the few times in life that you can throw things at people without hurting them.  It is great fun and a great release of all sorts of energy as you run around throwing snow and getting hit.

In some ways it reminded me of anger work, except that this involved the release of different emotions.  Here we were having fun and releasing our stresses from the week.  In anger work you are releasing your anger.

In our society we are often taught to suppress anger or are unable to express it at the time or in the way we want to.  It is like having a bottle and each time you suppress your anger it goes into the bottle and you keep adding to it if it is not expressed.  Gradually it fills up to the top at which point you explode.  Have you ever noticed that you may seem to have a handle on things and be relatively calm and then suddenly something really small will set you off.  Or you may have found this with someone else, you make a small mistake and they go right off.  Basically their bottle has got to the top.

If you find this is familiar to you then doing anger work in some form will work for you.  This involves giving yourself some outlet for the anger before it gets to busting point.  For some a punching a bag works, for others it can be hitting cushions.  One of my favourites is what one of my fellow coaches does, she screams out loud while she is going along in the car.  For more guidance with this I would suggest working with a coach or someone who has experience in it.