To say anything here and now puts me at risk of beating the dead horse of a failed analogy, but I think that I know where I went wrong with it now. I should've inserted a directive statement before heading off on the Gordion knot imagery. This is the statement that should have preceeded it:
In order to separate oneself from the feeling of rage, one must get distance so that one can manipulate the feeling as though it is outside you, as though it is a thing that has some of the emotional attributes of your connection to it, in this case, an untieable knot.
The idea that I was trying to share was that we have little control of anything other than ourselves. It is near impossible to gain self control as long as the enraging event or person is internalized within oneself. Externalizing the rage through the visualization of the angering thing as being a separate thing, a huge knot here but it could just as well be a car or an article of clothing, is the first step to mastery, to self mastery. Speaking for myself, the problem is solved when I understand the part I played in chosing to feel powerless.
Something similar happens when I cry. I've noticed that the feeling that is buried deep inside the feeling of crying is
"powerlessness", whether it is due to someone's death, my sense of guilt or my sense of personal failure. Have you ever noticed how frequently people cry when they are involved in an intensely angry, verbal fight?
Isn't the deep feeling powerlessness? And isn't that powerlessness a challenge to self-preservation?
Yes, and humour is a way of externalising it. It is possible to cry tears of joy. Another reason for crying is to reduce stress. It is analogous to laughter in that way. Tears produced during intense emotion contain adrenocorticotropic hormones which indicate high stress levels. Leucine-enkephalin is also present which is an endorphin that reduces pain and improves mood.
