Knowing This as a Young Child Could Have Saved a Lot of Heartache
Throw your anger away
Imay be late to this, but I recently came across a Japanese study conducted on April 9, 2024.
It was a study conducted with one hundred angry students on a way to eliminate anger almost entirely.
This involved writing down anger and throwing it in the trash or shredding it after it was written down.
Immediately upon reading the study, I thought of the little nine-year-old girl in me.
I started struggling with school in the third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Moon, was old and one of the worst teachers I’ve ever experienced.
I couldn’t learn from her.
I remember sitting in class so terrified that I barely heard anything she had to say; she yelled a lot.
To make things worse, she wanted me to stay after class to work on my math skills with her and another student.
This caused my anxiety to spike, something I consider to be the beginning of my long-term battle with anxiety within the classroom setting.
Looking back, I can recognize it as such because my son has sadly taken after me in this department and has been diagnosed with anxiety.
When asked specific questions, we have concluded that most of his anxiety stems from school and the classroom setting.
I recognize a lot of myself in him.
By fifth grade, I was stressed out and already tired of struggling in school. I thought I was stupid, school was stupid, and everything was stupid (as only a fifth-grader could determine).
I would often ‘angry’ scribble on sheets of paper as I completed my homework, along with random angry lines and dark scribbles, about how I was ‘stupid’ and how much I hated school.
I had no intention of anyone ever seeing my angry papers, but I didn’t always do my best to hide them, either.
One night, my parents came across one of my ‘angry papers’ and sent it to my teacher.
Nothing could have prepared me for the way my teacher handled the situation.
The next day, she called me out in front of my entire class.
As an adult, I am still unsure of her intentions when she held up my paper for my classmates to see and stated, “I was not stupid, and I needed to believe in myself.”
I can’t tell you precisely what she said because, at that moment, my cheeks were hot, my face turned red, and I had all but blacked out from a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
Upon reading the study (located below), my first thought was,
“This would have been helpful to know as a child.”
I would have burned the heck out of all those angry papers had I known I would later be called out in front of all my friends and classmates.
So, if you typically journal or write down your thoughts in times of anger, the results are clear: throw the paper away when you are finished.
I, for one, am happy to try anything that will help aid my healing journey.
Let me know in the comments if you have tried this tactic before, and if so, did it work for you?
Thank you to all who read this to the end. Your continued love and support mean the world to me.
*Anyone interested in reading the study can find it here and here.
I’d also like to take a moment to highlight some very important individuals. They are a huge part of this community, and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to know them. Please take a moment to check them out and give them a following:
ALEX KIRKLAND Liberty Forrest, Author Sara Fellers
Need a Healing vibe? Check out this piece by ALEX KIRKLAND:
Feel free to offer up claps of encouragement as well. XOXO Tammie. 🙂
*Tammie is an aspiring health and life coach with a background in the school system. She has worked with kids from preschool through sixth grade and the SPED and library departments. She has three kids, two dogs, and one amazing husband. You can often find her sitting on her front porch and watching all the cool kids play in her yard. You can also find her at https://www.tammie-fralick.com.
