LaBarge’s Top 5 Tips on Peace, Calm and Serenity

Justin LaBarge 
Producer, Legacy Magazine

One of the personal traits associated with yours truly, is that I don’t get angry. Men don’t often see me get pissed off, or in the rare case that I do, men will stop and listen.

This is, of course, not true. I get very pissed, to the point where I can scare my woman. Anger for me often happens in a flash, and then poof! It’s that fleeting. Reluctantly, I will go from pissed back to calm, and I wonder why everyone else is still upset. Then I move to clean it up, with my full emotional presence, unimpeded by anger.

I feel justified by releasing my anger in the moment, and then letting it go.

In reviewing how I deal with anger, I see I can share what I have learned. So without further ado, here are five self-realizing principles to help manage anger.

1. Don’t take life personally.
   As a mature masculine man, I’m clear that my life is no longer about me. I’ve given myself over to the commitments that serve my purpose in life, and now I’m responsible for it.
   
2. People aren’t reacting to me.
   People are reacting to the story they are telling themselves in their own head. Right in the moment. Realizing this, I give myself the freedom to choose to engage with them, or not. I don’t need to be angry, just because YOU are!
   
3. I must listen.
   When I’m listening to you, and my intentions are fully in YOUR EXPERIENCE, I am not listening to my own inner dialogue. Therefore, if I think I know the answer to our conversation, I already have undone your intent.
   
4. Bring my curiosity.
   When I am genuinely curious as to what is going on in my world around me, I am letting go of expectations of the way I feel things SHOULD be going, which ultimately becomes a path of disappointment.
   
5. It doesn’t mean anything that life doesn’t mean anything.
   Stop expecting the world to be of service to you. instead, listen and hear the music, hear the rhythm calling you forward, into the intricate dance that life presents for you.