I think that the content posted was awesome, so any comment would have to follow suit. Seriously, I am very new in my own self-awareness journey and it's great to read introspective stuff with real chew to it like you posted. I was able to connect to it and I really look forward to reading the other posts as well.

Thanks again!

Wow.

You so right about the "just being more thoughtful. Also that all raw, meditation, exercise & so on just push us in that direction.. greater awareness of self.

& yep, that's really all it is about — not the getting angry (or sad, or..) just the being aware enough to let it go, rather than hang on to it, dwell in it, & let it take over. Emotions coming up is fine, but by being aware, we drastically shorten the amount of time those emotions are in our system. We don't resist them, or push them down again (otherwise they'll just bottle up, hulk style, as you say), but rather, acknowledge them, & let them pass on out & away.

So frickin' cool.

& the hurt I've experienced? Ahh, well there's the rub. Any hurt I experience is only there because at some level I want it there. At some level, I want to be hurt (feel I deserve it, hate myself, whatever). So, you let go of the pain, root down a bit & let go of the cause — in my case, a long standing set of beliefs I've had that:

a) You have to suffer to survive
b) I deserve to suffer
c) Life is hard
etc etc

& voila, you stop getting hurt (or at least, in those ways).

It's the funny thing:

1. These kind of events just stop occurring around you, &
2. If they do, they don't bother you in the slightest.

As within, so without. Or something :)

Anger is one of those things that is tough to get over when you are in the habit of not being thoughtful about the things you do. I don't mean externally thoughtful (holding the door for someone, etc) , but being thoughtful about how you process things internally and taking responsibility for your actions and feelings.

It's always amazing to me how something like that can sometimes seem to sneak up and overtake us even when we ARE being thoughtful. Still as you say, it is part of the human condition. The really cool thing is realizing that yes we do have control over it and being able to really grok statements like Carrie Fisher's.

One of the neat things about embarking in self-help, be it through raw eating, meditation, martial arts, exercise in general, is that all of these things tend to point us in a thoughtful direction, in other words, we start doing things deliberately. Even if the goal is more simplicity of life we do things differently, deliberately. The plan, the deliberateness which may have seemed confining to us in theory, end up being liberating.

Not giving in to the anger impulse to smash and destroy does not put Hulk into a straight jacket where we explodes with un-vented anger. Instead it sets him free to happily walk the valley, smelling the flowers, enjoying the gentle breeze. :)

I'm sorry for the hurt you experienced, even when we are feeling very serene, it's not fun to be hurt by another. I hope that it will drift away on the breeze for you. Hopefully the other person will find their center also, and get past the gut reaction and harmful stuff.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing, I'll try to take a deep breath and bring it to mind the next time I start to feel like I am going to be pissed off!