Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement

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CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE
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THE WORST NEGATIVE 
INFLUENCE OF ALL
The fourth major cause of negative emotions, according to Ouspen-
sky, and the trigger of anger, resentment, envy, jealousy, and frustra-
tion of any kind is 
blame
. It is blame especially that generates 
anger
,
the worst of all the negative emotions. Anger is more destructive
than any force in the human world. Uncontrolled anger destroys
health, relationships, families, businesses, and societies, and is the
chief generator of wars, revolutions, and social conflict.
The primary cause of anger can be traced back to destructive
criticism in early childhood. Whenever a person is criticized, he
reacts exactly as if he is being attacked, with defensiveness and re-
sentment. Since any behavior that you repeat over and over be-
comes a habit, many people develop the habit of responding with
anger to every problem, disappointment, or frustration they expe-
rience. Eventually, they reach the point where they are always an-
gry about something.
To become angry, a person must be able to blame someone for
something that has happened or not happened that they don’t like
or approve of. Many people are so preoccupied with blaming others
for their problems that they lose contact with reality. They see the
entire world through a lens of blame and its sister emotion, guilt.
Whenever there is a problem, personal or public, the angry per-
son automatically concludes that someone must be to blame. The
individual then spends his time and emotion apportioning blame
among various parties. This obsession with blame and anger, lead-
ing to resentment and envy, can often consume the person who ex-
periences it.
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