Hello Beautiful.
I have a question for you:
Have you raged lately?
Yes, raging can be good for you. Yes, it can be healthy. Yes, it can be mind-blowingly transformative. Yes, feeling all that rage that has been pent up in your body for years—maybe even lifetimes—can be completely cathartic rather than destructive.
If you are tuned into practices that honor the natural Creative Intelligence of the body, you will know what I’m talking about. If not, allow me to let you in on a little secret that is incredibly healing and has the potential to clear out millennia of patriarchal oppression in one session. After learning about how easy and practical a rage ritual is, you may just want to drop everything and go try it out for yourself. (My hope is that you do!)
No one gender is immune to rage. BUT if you are a womxn living in these times, I would bet that the level of rage stored in your body is HIGH. As a woman myself, I can attest to this. If you are like me, you likely were not taught how to create healthy boundaries around what your true needs and desires are. After years of saying Yes when you really mean No, anger and rage are likely to be present in the body.
You see, you were taught to be a Good Girl. To stay quiet even when your heart was beating out of your chest and all your cells were screaming NO in unison!
As society modeled to you that your body was not to be trusted, you were trained to silence your body’s primal way of communicating with you.
All of this, over time, leads to anger that builds up in the body. This energy stays stuck as you repress it and don’t give it a channel to move through you and be expressed, eventually leading to manifestations of dis-ease.
But that’s where practices that tap into the natural intelligence of the body such as shaking or raging come in!
Last Wednesday on May 26th, a total lunar eclipse took place. Because the light of the moon is blotted out momentarily during an eclipse, this lunar event naturally portends to a time when our shadows---usually conveniently hidden away from plain sight---rise to the surface from our subconscious to be worked with in some way. Potent astrological shifts like the one we just experienced this past week are wonderful opportunities to transform, alchemize and release what is no longer serving us.
And guess what!
We are in Eclipse Season—which means that next week on June 10th there is another opportunity to alchemize and shed those deeply imbedded layers of anger, fear and grief.
Whether you mark your calendar to do this ritual next week or you feel like you want to do one immediately, I invite you to make a commitment to yourself to do a Rage Ritual!
This practice might sound slightly esoteric or difficult to do but it’s actually quite simple and effective, and anyone can do it. There are many guided practices you can find on the internet but I find that spontaneous, self-guided ones work great!
Below are 4 steps to rage safely so you can clear your energy, feel lighter and attract more abundance and goodness into your life:
Step 1. Pick place for your Rage Ritual that feels safe.
Where and when will you feel safe enough to allow yourself to feel the full spectrum of your emotions? (hint: Full spectrum means you will likely want to yell, grunt, scream, shout, shake, kick, punch—or a combo of all of these!)
The place you select can be anywhere from outside in nature where you know no one will see or hear you or in a bedroom with the door locked. It doesn’t matter where you do this, all that matters is that you feel safe. I like both inside and outside options but for quickie rituals when I know I don’t have a lot of time I usually opt for in my bedroom so that I can play music and I can punch pillows if needed :)
Step 2. Be prepared for what wants to arise and set the intention that “All is Welcome Here.”
This step is just a quick self-affirmation where you tell yourself that whatever wants to bubble to the surface is free to do so and you welcome it ALL. With repressed anger and rage, you might be scared to feel the full extent of your emotions out at first. Know that this is normal. This is why it’s critical to set an intention at the beginning of the ritual.
Step 3. Tap into your rage and just go for it!
This is where you will start to let the emotions of anger, grief, sadness, shame and any others that are just below the surface start to arise. You can do this by moving your body and gently shaking your nervous system awake. It may be helpful to bring into focus a situation that feels emotionally charged and as you move and shake, allow yourself to be flooded by what it brings up for you. If that’s too challenging because you feel numb and blocked off, you can also just start to roar, grunt and groan as if you were a wild animal and that will usually spark connections in your internal neuronal network, setting off a chain reaction where your emotions are activated enough for you to feel them….and that’s when you really go for it, lose it, go wild and moooooove the energy so that they can be cleared from your body.
Step 4. Give thanks and integrate.
When you feel complete with your raging or too tired to continue, it’s time to wind down your energy and come to stillness. I like to put my hands on my heart and thank myself for showing up for this widely socially unacceptable yet sacred practice. Plus it takes guts and courage to process darker emotions. Thank yourself and find a position that feels nourishing and safe. Maybe it’s curled up in a ball or perhaps it’s lying in shavasana. Whatever your body needs, she will tell you. Listen and be still until your feel calm and like there is a natural completion to your practice. At this point, you may feel physically and emotionally lighter---because you are! Of course, there are times when this practice may bring up deeper layers to clear so be gentle with yourself and know that if you continue giving yourself the gift of Raging regularly, your energetic load will become less dense over time.
Let me know in the comments if this ritual resonates with you and if you try it out, please let me know how it goes! I can’t wait to hear.
love + wild rage,
Kate