Do you cringe when you think of an outburst you had? Or do you know someone who habitually rages behind the wheel and brags about it? Do you ever regret what you said in a moment of anger? Maybe this is you or maybe this is someone you care about.

Every day we are presented with opportunities for the angry monster to come out. A challenge to our ego or our rights, a misunderstanding, a look or a word, or just an aggressive action, can bring out the Angry Monster. This could be anything from a curt email at work to a dirty look or even outright physical violence.

The Angry Monster comes out when activated. The trigger could be a car pulling ahead of you in traffic, the bus arriving 10 minutes early, a store clerk shuffling you around, a colleague at work throwing work on you, a screaming child—lots of different triggers. This is like a gun that is ready to fire being fired. It is like a lamp that is turned on. It’s something that’s already there giving itself that extra push.

So what’s already there? And why is it shooting? And what can you do to prevent it from happening?

Well, in terms of energetic healing, what you have is an energetic imbalance. An energy imbalance could be due to the accumulation of various imbalances throughout life. For example, if your parents hit you, there may be a lot of anger building up below the surface. If your ex cheated on you, that’s a source of stored anger. These are examples of emotional sources of this imbalance. It can also have physical sources, for example, an inherited imbalance in the liver or spleen meridian. Or there may be a reaction to certain foods, such as eating more wheat than your nervous system can handle.

This energetic imbalance, unless released, is always there like a loaded gun ready to fire.

To avoid the trigger, there are two approaches. First, it works to release stored energy imbalance. When you do, your energy, or chi as it is often called, will flow more smoothly. And as in the gun example, when the gun is not loaded and ready to fire, it cannot be fired. If the cause of the imbalance is physical or you have not yet had a chance to release all of the stored imbalance, you can train yourself to start releasing as soon as the trigger begins to occur. Using the gun example, this means we put the safety on.

Now that we know what to do, we need the how. I am for two very powerful techniques. One works great and is probably the best method out there so far. This is EFT, short for Emotional Freedom Techniques. It uses a clever blend of words and acupressure stimulation to release energy imbalances and restore smooth energy flow. If you are familiar with EFT and have anger issues, I recommend that you go through your Personal Peace Procedure. This involves working through all of your past events and then events as they happen each day. And you can use EFT in an emergency by rubbing your favorite spot as soon as the trigger occurs. The finger points are very good for this. I recommend Reiki for people with schizophrenia or psychosis, for whom EFT may not be suitable. If you fall into this category, I recommend that you learn Reiki and adopt it as a way of life. If you are already familiar with Reiki and have anger issues, be sure to do your self-healing every day. Even if all you have is five minutes, just practice doing it. And when you encounter a trigger, apply Reiki to yourself and the situation.

Effective energy techniques like EFT release the energy of pent up anger and also help to diffuse a situation when it flares up. And remember that anger is just an energy imbalance. Eliminate energy imbalance and you will eliminate anger. Simple.