Do you ever get the urge to break someone’s neck? Or maybe you sometimes find yourself caught in contemplation of creative and gruesome ways to hurt people that make you feel anxious?
Having violent thoughts as a response to stress and hardships is not altogether uncommon; but if you find yourself constantly dwelling in such thoughts, you might eventually feel compelled to act on them… and more likely than not, you will regret doing so.
Violent thoughts lead only to hatred and disaster, so unless that’s something you want in your life, you must find a way to handle yourself. After all… those violent thoughts may be involuntary, but they take place in your own mind.
Violence and anxiety oftentimes come hand in hand. If you are tired of being overcome by anger, you should examine the connection between your feelings of anxiousness and your violent thoughts…. Once you understand how your uneasiness is actually at the source of your violent thoughts, it will be easier getting rid of both.
You need to realize how your violent thoughts only add up to your anxiety, and how your very uneasiness reinforces those violent thoughts. You need to reclaim your rationality. Do you really think hurting someone (yes, even your nasty boss) would make you feel better? That is a very unfortunate illusion.
If you were to act up on your violent thoughts, you would only draw further anger and violence in your direction. There is no way that will make you feel less anxious. Maybe you cannot prevent those thoughts from surfacing in the first place, but you can decide how you handle them after they surface.
You always get to decide whether you’ll let yourself be overcome by those violent thoughts… unless you convince yourself that you really have no choice. Having violent thoughts may be wholly involuntary, but your reaction to having those thoughts doesn’t have to be.
If nothing else, remember this: you cannot possibly hope to attain peace of mind through violence. That doesn’t even make any sense!
