Have you ever known a person who seems to be angry or full of venom all of the time? This sort of ever-present dark energy can be really draining. I refer to these infuriated folks as energy vampires.

Sad to say, there are countless people in the world who are angry for all of the unpleasant incidents they’ve encountered throughout their lives. These energy vampires seem to carry all of their negative experiences with them wherever they go.

While we all have experienced heart breaking moments, we can learn to accept the situation and move on with our lives instead sucking the joy out of the present moment.

Anger can be a deeply destructive emotion if we let it get out of control and remain attached to our Ego’s expectations. Holding on to the venom of destructive feelings can trigger depression, bring on disease and contribute to a general sense of dissatisfaction. Getting angry is natural, how you handle anger is another animal all together.

Each of us has the capacity to learn how to let go of guilt, anger, and shame.

5 Tips to Come to Grips

1. Allow yourself to be pissed off for 15 minutes then take action.

Anger is natural and acceptable emotion for a short period of time. Allowing time to feel and express your anger is healthy. The key is to feel it, and then take a deep breath and address the situation. How can you deal with what happened. What steps can you take to make things right?

2. Reframe the situation as “a moment in time” and then let it go.

Have you ever looked back on an anger-filled emotional situation and laughed? I suspect you are nodding that you have. The point here is you will recover and life will get back on track.

Last week I was angry with a customer service person who forgot that “service” was a part of her title. After lots of uncomfortable hoop jumping, everything was resolved. At that point I had 2 choices. Let it go, or dump on everyone I know about my crappy experience.

3. Learn to Forgive: Forgiveness is healthy and all about YOU letting go of useless baggage.

Practice forgiveness whenever you can. You will feel better and lighter for having the courage to allow for human weakness. Let it go. Kids are great teachers of forgiveness. Notice how easily they forgive each other and move on.

4. Take stock in your relationships; words are irreversible and unrepeatable.

This quote explains this situation perfectly … Think before you speak.

Know that a word suddenly shot from the tongue is like an arrow shot from the bow. That arrow won’t turn back on its way; you must damn the torrent at its source.– Rumi

5. Walk away from Energy Vampires

Unless you have some sort of super protective energy force field, do yourself a favor and walk away from people who rant and rave and suck up all of your positive energy. If you can’t get away, add some humor to the encounter. Energy Vampires will be thrown off by your silliness and will move on to their next willing audience member.

Follow these simple tips and you will open yourself to a well-balanced, healthy way of living.