Many times we hear that the way we respond to situations will dictate how our day will look, and not necessarily the situations themselves. If you are careful to maintain a positive attitude in your life, you have already learned this, and if not, the following story will show you how a negative approach to life can be destructive and harmful not only to you but to your environment as a whole and why it is so important to change it. This is without doubt one of the most powerful parables because we all are familiar with the situations described from our personal lives. This parable teaches what the cycle of anger is and how it can be broken so that we can live a life full of joy and happiness.
The CEO of a big insurance company left his house in the morning and headed towards his car. When he opened his car door, a dog who was hiding beneath it, jumped out and bit his leg. The CEO, who at this point was very angry at the dog, kicked him and the dog ran away.
When he arrived at the office, the CEO held a meeting with all the associates beneath him. Throughout the whole meeting, he yelled a lot, insultingly pointed out their mistakes, and took his anger out on them.
The managers felt very bad after the meeting and took their anger out on their employees who took their anger out on the people who worked beneath them – and so the chain of anger reached the office maintenance man.
At the end of the day, the maintenance man went home. His wife opened the door for him and asked, “why are you coming home so late,” and he yelled at her and said, “I didn’t go to the office to play I went to work! Don’t make me angry with your questions!”
The wife felt that the husband yelled at her for no reason and took her own anger at the situation out on her child who was watching television in the living room: “This is what you do all day, don’t you have homework to do?! I’m shutting the T.V off now!”
The upset child left the house to let off some steam and started throwing rocks in the neighborhood streets. One of the rocks hit a dog who was in the area. It was the same dog that bit the CEO in the morning, and the same story repeated itself the next day.
Moral of the story: In this world, there are things that may anger or stress us out that pass from person to person. Each of us has the responsibility to understand this cycle of anger, to catch it in time and to stop it. When you find yourself in an upsetting situation, instead of passing your anger on to others, swap the negative feeling out for a positive one. Choose the feeling you want to feel more and spread it to others making sure it has lots of room in your life.
