Latest / Reflect Reclaim & Liberate - with Sallyanne Hartnell / Reclaiming Rage - The Anger We Were Never Allowed to Feel - And the Radical Act of Asking for More
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Reflect, Reclaim and Liberate, a podcast covering all things relationships, separation, and divorce.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: How to create healthy, happy, fulfilling relationships without sacrificing any part of yourself.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Supporting anyone feeling challenged in their relationship or marriage.
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: These are confidential conversations for you if you're navigating separation, divorce, or reorganising life afterwards.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: Decide whether to stay or leave a relationship or marriage, divorce with less drama, and consciously choose what's next for you.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is recorded, the Warren Tree people of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging.
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: I acknowledge them as the original storytellers of this land.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome to this week's episode of the podcast.
- 0:57SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking all about rage, anger, and the radical act of allowing ourselves to access, to feel and express our rage, as well as another radical act, the quiet rebellion of asking for more, of acknowledging the truth that we are allowed to want and ask for more.
- 1:21SPEAKER_00: And let's be clear here, this is deeply gendered.
- 1:25SPEAKER_00: Rage is a language that women and female presenting people have been taught not to speak.
- 1:31SPEAKER_00: It's often off-limits for women and anyone socialized to be quiet, to be pleasing and non-disruptive.
- 1:39SPEAKER_00: It's seen as unattractive on a woman, unacceptable, off-limits, too much, too loud, too angry.
- 1:46SPEAKER_00: And so today's episode is about the rage we are disallowed, not allowed to feel, and the radical act that is asking for more.
- 2:00SPEAKER_00: Really underlying all of that is why women still need permission to be angry, to ask for more and to be heard.
- 2:09SPEAKER_00: So I want to start with a client story, and this is a client who said to me, I'm not angry, I'm just tired.
- 2:17SPEAKER_00: I'm tired of never being heard, I'm tired of what I want being overlooked, dismissed, or treated like it matters less than what everyone else wants.
- 2:29SPEAKER_00: I'm not angry, I'm tired, I'm frustrated.
- 2:33SPEAKER_00: But everything in her voice, in her body, was telling me a different story.
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: Her body and her voice said otherwise.
- 2:44SPEAKER_00: It was in, you know, a tightness in her jaw, the way she curled her fingers into almost into a fist as she was speaking.
- 2:55SPEAKER_00: It was in the way her words spilled out really quickly, rolling on top of one another.
- 3:02SPEAKER_00: They were controlled but sharp.
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: This wasn't just frustration, this wasn't just exhaustion, this was rage, quiet rage, long held, deeply buried, and perfectly managed, but still it was anger, it was rage.
- 3:21SPEAKER_00: And the kind of rage that builds when you're when you've spent years, years making yourself smaller, more accommodating, more understanding, when you've been the peacekeeper, the fixer, the one who bends or stretches or shrinks so that others can fit or don't feel discomfort, it's that kind of rage.
- 3:44SPEAKER_00: She had learned, been conditioned, taught to name it otherwise, to name it as tired or frustrated.
- 3:51SPEAKER_00: But underneath it was anger.
- 3:53SPEAKER_00: It was righteous, reasonable, necessary anger, and it was demanding to be heard and acknowledged.
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: And in the acknowledgement, that didn't make her dramatic or grateful or or you know fiery, a volcano, you know, a volcanic kind of eruption didn't make her too much, it didn't make her unattractive or unlovable or rejected.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: It made her honest, it made her human and it made her allow what was her truth to really rise to the surface.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: Sometimes anger, rage, allowing it, or the first step of allowing it to rise isn't dramatic, it isn't yelling, it isn't throwing stuff, it isn't breaking things down, it's just a simple truth telling.
- 4:45SPEAKER_00: It is just voicing it and telling your truth.
- 4:49SPEAKER_00: I'm not just tired, I'm not just frustrated, I'm angry, and I want and deserve and am worthy of more.
- 4:58SPEAKER_00: So it just comes in naming it.
- 5:01SPEAKER_00: I am angry.
- 5:03SPEAKER_00: But why?
- 5:04SPEAKER_00: Why are women, female identifying, female presenting people not allowed to be angry or ask for more?
- 5:12SPEAKER_00: Let's start with that.
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: Let's start with the big why.
- 5:15SPEAKER_00: Why is it that so many women feel like they're not allowed to feel rage?
- 5:20SPEAKER_00: They're not allowed to be angry or ask for more.
- 5:23SPEAKER_00: Why do so many of us wrestle with guilt just for having wants, needs, desires, dreams, hopes, for expecting those things for us to be met, for wanting to be heard, and for our hopes, dreams, desires, goals, values, for all of that to matter.
- 5:42SPEAKER_00: So, yes, we're talking about rage today, but it's also about reclaiming that radical, uncomfortable, liberal, liberating act and saying, this isn't enough for me.
- 5:52SPEAKER_00: I need more.
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: I want more, I deserve more.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: So why, going back to that question, why aren't we allowed to be angry?
- 6:00SPEAKER_00: In part, I believe it's because we were never taught how.
- 6:03SPEAKER_00: We were never taught how to be safely, emotionally safely angry.
- 6:07SPEAKER_00: Because the world continues to tell us we're prettier when we smile, we're more lovable, when we're agreeable, when we are kind and compliant, we're easy to be around when we don't take up space.
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: That perhaps, you know, space is for others.
- 6:22SPEAKER_00: Yes, for the men or males in our lives or the partners in our lives, but also for our children.
- 6:28SPEAKER_00: There is space for our children ahead of our space, right?
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's our parents too, or maybe it's the sibling who was the dramatic or difficult or challenging one.
- 6:37SPEAKER_00: So they are allowed to take up space.
- 6:39SPEAKER_00: Space and big feelings are for others, not necessarily for you, not for us.
- 6:44SPEAKER_00: We're taught that anger is unattractive on a girl or ugly on a woman.
- 6:51SPEAKER_00: We're asked to be good and nice and kind and compliant, and rage doesn't fit that model, doesn't fit in that mould of woman, girl, feminine.
- 6:59SPEAKER_00: We're taught to believe that rage, anger is dangerous or even unhinged and definitely unattractive.
- 7:08SPEAKER_00: So we learn from a really young age, we learn to package it as something else.
- 7:12SPEAKER_00: We learn to say we're tired or just tired or we're just frustrated, and we learn to say we're fine when really we're not.
- 7:20SPEAKER_00: We're fucking angry, right?
- 7:22SPEAKER_00: We shrink, we shrink ourselves, we shrink our feelings, we shrink rather than bring it out, rather than shout.
- 7:29SPEAKER_00: We sigh, we silence ourselves instead of speaking what we really feel or believe or want surfaced.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: You know, we swallow it down over and over until it becomes an ingrained pattern, until it becomes our norm.
- 7:45SPEAKER_00: This is the normal way for us.
- 7:47SPEAKER_00: Um, we swallow it over and over until it actually starts to swallow us, until it starts to really impact on how we show up in the world.
- 7:56SPEAKER_00: And there's also, as I mentioned earlier, you know, the family of origin stuff, because this conditioning often starts when we're really, really small and young.
- 8:03SPEAKER_00: It starts in our home.
- 8:05SPEAKER_00: Maybe, as I said, only one person in your family, maybe there was only room for one person in your family to be angry.
- 8:11SPEAKER_00: Maybe only one of you was allowed to be angry, and that wasn't you.
- 8:15SPEAKER_00: You know, it was the loud one, the scary one, the one who dominated, the one who had all the troubles and the big feelings and the challenges.
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: So you learned perhaps that there wasn't room for your anger, that it wasn't safe to bring it out, that it wouldn't change anything anyway.
- 8:29SPEAKER_00: So you learned to keep it contained.
- 8:31SPEAKER_00: You learned to stay small.
- 8:35SPEAKER_00: But asking for more is a revolutionary act.
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: Kemi Netflip, and if you don't know her work, I would really encourage you to explore her work, her writing, her books.
- 8:46SPEAKER_00: Kemi says, as women, we are allowed to ask for more, for different, for better.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: It takes immense courage to ask for more than what has been dealt to you.
- 8:59SPEAKER_00: And she's right, it is courageous, it's revolutionary because we've been taught that asking for more makes us ungrateful, that wanting more means we're maybe spoiled or we're demanding, we're hard to please, that settling is noble, I suppose, and that self-sacrifice is feminine, it is woman to self-sacrifice, right?
- 9:24SPEAKER_00: It is female and it is the right way to be a woman to self-sacrifice, to put everybody else's needs ahead of our own.
- 9:32SPEAKER_00: We've been culturally gaslit and told, you've got a great life, you've got a good life.
- 9:38SPEAKER_00: Why aren't you happy?
- 9:39SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, right?
- 9:41SPEAKER_00: Good on paper, ticking all the boxes, looking good from the external from the external is not necessarily the same thing as good for you, for your heart, for your soul, or for your nervous system.
- 9:53SPEAKER_00: You can be grateful for what you have and still want more.
- 9:57SPEAKER_00: You can love your life, even love your partner, love your kids, and want your life to stretch and deepen and feel more aligned.
- 10:06SPEAKER_00: That's not selfish.
- 10:07SPEAKER_00: That's just self-honouring.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: That's recognizing and acknowledging and allowing yourself to grow and expand and develop into something different and to allow your life to grow and expand and develop into something different, something more, something richer, something deeper.
- 10:26SPEAKER_00: And it's really interesting.
- 10:27SPEAKER_00: I find this really heartbreaking actually, that so many men who are in heterosexual relationships with women find that they are blindsided.
- 10:43SPEAKER_00: They're surprised when she finally leaves.
- 10:46SPEAKER_00: And I find it heartbreaking but also infuriating in equal measure, right?
- 10:52SPEAKER_00: Why?
- 10:52SPEAKER_00: Why do they find it so surprising?
- 10:54SPEAKER_00: But often they do.
- 10:56SPEAKER_00: When a woman leaves, when she finally calls it, when she tells her partner it's over, she's done, she's leaving, her male partner is shocked.
- 11:03SPEAKER_00: But she's been quietly telling him, often for years, sometimes for decades, she's trying all the things.
- 11:11SPEAKER_00: She's been saying, I need you to meet me.
- 11:13SPEAKER_00: I need to be seen, heard, valued.
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: She's been dropping the messages, the breadcrumbs, whether they be overt or a little bit more subtle.
- 11:23SPEAKER_00: She's been crying out in plain sight, minimising herself, minimizing her own pain so it wouldn't make him uncomfortable, but also almost begging for different, begging for change.
- 11:34SPEAKER_00: She's been asking for more, wanting more, deeper connection, whatever it is.
- 11:39SPEAKER_00: And then one day she just stops.
- 11:40SPEAKER_00: She stops asking, she goes quiet, she withdraws, and not because her desire for different, for more, for deeper has gone, but because it hurts too much to keep wanting what never changes.
- 11:53SPEAKER_00: So she doesn't stop wanting.
- 11:54SPEAKER_00: That wanting never leaves, but she stops believing it will be heard.
- 12:00SPEAKER_00: She stops hoping, she stops pushing, she stops trying to explain, she stops asking for change, she stops asking to be met, she gives up, not on herself, but on being met, on this relationship, having space for her to blossom into all of who she wants to be, and for that partner to come with her on that journey.
- 12:22SPEAKER_00: And she begins to accept that this is not going to change.
- 12:28SPEAKER_00: Not because it's okay, but because it's safer for her heart, her soul, her nervous system than that constant disappointment, the constant ache of disappointment.
- 12:38SPEAKER_00: And that's when something in her starts to harden or maybe crack open, and sometimes both, and she finally gathers the courage to speak up and say, I'm done.
- 12:51SPEAKER_00: And that heartbreakingly is the moment he pays attention.
- 12:55SPEAKER_00: But by then she's already gone, she's checked out, maybe not physically gone just yet, but emotionally, mentally, soul deep.
- 13:03SPEAKER_00: She's done.
- 13:04SPEAKER_00: She's gone.
- 13:05SPEAKER_00: And he really is surprised.
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: And that's part of the cost to suppressing or repressing our anger, our rage.
- 13:15SPEAKER_00: The cost of repressing rage is you.
- 13:19SPEAKER_00: Because rage doesn't disappear.
- 13:23SPEAKER_00: You can bury it, you can push it down, you can push it away, but it then buries itself in you, in your body, and it festers.
- 13:34SPEAKER_00: It festers into shame, blame, resentment.
- 13:40SPEAKER_00: It hardens into disconnect, numbness, and it leaks out, it leaks out left, right, sideways into things like burnout, anxiety, overgiving, resentment.
- 13:54SPEAKER_00: And you can name it differently all you like.
- 13:56SPEAKER_00: You can name it exhaustion, you can name it frustration, you can name it whatever, but it is still rage, it's still anger.
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: And when you turn your rage inward, when you minimize it, when you suppress it, when you shut it down, you don't actually become less angry, you become less alive.
- 14:17SPEAKER_00: You become less alive to yourself and to your own life.
- 14:22SPEAKER_00: Because here's the real truth: rage isn't wrong or bad or something to be feared.
- 14:29SPEAKER_00: It's information, it's the signal that something needs tending.
- 14:34SPEAKER_00: It's the signal, the sign that something sacred within you has been violated, that something in you is not okay with how things are.
- 14:45SPEAKER_00: Rage is a compass and it's pointing to something being not quite right, something being not aligned.
- 14:53SPEAKER_00: It might be pointing to your limits, your values, your truth, but it is information.
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: And allowing that rage to surface doesn't mean you've lost control or you will lose control if you allow it.
- 15:05SPEAKER_00: It means something needs your time, energy, attention.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: It's like a voice wanting to be heard.
- 15:11SPEAKER_00: And once you hear it, once you really, really hear it, you can't unknow it.
- 15:16SPEAKER_00: That voice, when you hear it, when you listen, when you're willing to listen, when you're willing to sit in the discomfort of listening to it, it's a voice that demands change, even when it's hard, even when it's scary, because staying silent is costing you more.
- 15:35SPEAKER_00: It's costing you more than what you risk from speaking up.
- 15:40SPEAKER_00: And so now to reclaiming our right, your right to rage and to asking for more.
- 15:48SPEAKER_00: Rage isn't just noise, it's not something to be feared or repressed, it's a necessary voice, it's a message from ourselves.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: And rage demands space.
- 15:59SPEAKER_00: And I think it's really time to look at that and and to allow it and to give it room.
- 16:05SPEAKER_00: Not because it gets to take over, not because it gets to destroy things, not because it gets to be an inferno, but just because it needs to be heard.
- 16:16SPEAKER_00: When we reclaim our rage, when we reclaim our right to rage, we reclaim our boundaries, our integrity, our self-respect, our safety, and our vision for something bigger, better, deeper.
- 16:29SPEAKER_00: Rage isn't the problem.
- 16:31SPEAKER_00: Suppressing it, minimizing it, keeping it small, turning it inwards is.
- 16:36SPEAKER_00: So let's reframe it.
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: Rage is a message.
- 16:40SPEAKER_00: It gives us clarity and the capacity to reclaim our power and speak our truth.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: So rage is clarity plus power plus truth.
- 16:48SPEAKER_00: It's like a fire that says, no more.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: It's a force that says, I'm not shrinking for this.
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: It's the wisdom that says, This is not okay.
- 16:57SPEAKER_00: This is not okay for me, whatever it is for you.
- 16:59SPEAKER_00: This is not okay, and I'm not going to settle for it, I'm not going to tolerate it anymore.
- 17:04SPEAKER_00: I want change.
- 17:05SPEAKER_00: You don't have to stay nice and quiet and palatable to be good, kind, loving, loved.
- 17:12SPEAKER_00: You can be furious and still full of love.
- 17:15SPEAKER_00: Rage and fury and anger are not something to be feared.
- 17:19SPEAKER_00: They are something to be allowed in really safe spaces.
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: So, how?
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: How do we do it?
- 17:24SPEAKER_00: How do we honour our anger without letting it burn everything down, destroy everything?
- 17:29SPEAKER_00: So, let's talk some healthy, practical ways to express anger to move through it or to allow it to move through us and to communicate it.
- 17:40SPEAKER_00: First, I'm going to offer you some questions to ask yourself.
- 17:43SPEAKER_00: You can use them as journal prompts or you can just ponder them in meditation or while you're walking, running at the gym, driving, whatever.
- 17:50SPEAKER_00: So the first one is where am I softening my truth to keep the peace?
- 17:58SPEAKER_00: The second one is where or when did I learn that asking for for more makes me too much?
- 18:09SPEAKER_00: Where did I learn that?
- 18:12SPEAKER_00: The next question to ask yourself is what is the message?
- 18:16SPEAKER_00: What does my anger want me to know?
- 18:19SPEAKER_00: I think this is really key.
- 18:21SPEAKER_00: What is my anger trying to tell me?
- 18:25SPEAKER_00: What is my rage?
- 18:26SPEAKER_00: What is the gift my rage is giving me?
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: What is the information my rage wants me to know?
- 18:33SPEAKER_00: And what would it look like to let myself fully feel this without apology?
- 18:42SPEAKER_00: What would it look like to let myself fully feel this anger, fury, rage without apology?
- 18:51SPEAKER_00: Next step, I think, is moving, allowing it to move through us, right?
- 18:56SPEAKER_00: So I love a good somatic release.
- 18:59SPEAKER_00: Get it out of your body, you know, shake, scream in the car, run, punch a pillow, dance like a crazy thing, jump on the trampoline, whatever it is.
- 19:09SPEAKER_00: Rage lives in your body, so let your body move it.
- 19:13SPEAKER_00: Let it move through you and out in whatever form works for you.
- 19:18SPEAKER_00: Put your hands on the on the wall and push as hard as you can.
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: Scream, yell, whatever it is.
- 19:23SPEAKER_00: Find a somatic way to release your rage or anger.
- 19:29SPEAKER_00: The next step, and maybe this comes first for you, there's no right or wrong order here.
- 19:34SPEAKER_00: Name it.
- 19:35SPEAKER_00: Name it cleanly, clearly.
- 19:38SPEAKER_00: I'm angry is a full sentence.
- 19:40SPEAKER_00: I'm furious.
- 19:42SPEAKER_00: I feel rage.
- 19:44SPEAKER_00: Full sentences.
- 19:45SPEAKER_00: You don't have to dress it up or minimize it or rename it, rebrand it as something more palatable, like frustrated, disappointed.
- 19:56SPEAKER_00: If you're angry, allow yourself to name it cleanly.
- 20:00SPEAKER_00: I'm angry.
- 20:03SPEAKER_00: The next step after that is to communicate it without damage or destruction, without being the lava from the volcano that just pours on everything and and destroys everything, right?
- 20:18SPEAKER_00: Communicate it clearly without damage or destruction, but don't dilute it.
- 20:23SPEAKER_00: You can say something like, I feel deeply angry about what happened, and I need you to hear that without defensiveness.
- 20:32SPEAKER_00: Or my anger is a single single?
- 20:36SPEAKER_00: My anger is a signal that I've reached my edge.
- 20:40SPEAKER_00: I'm not here, I don't want this conversation to destroy things.
- 20:44SPEAKER_00: I just need to tell the truth.
- 20:46SPEAKER_00: So my anger is a signal I've reached my edge.
- 20:50SPEAKER_00: I'm at my limit.
- 20:53SPEAKER_00: And then ask for more.
- 20:55SPEAKER_00: Again, clearly.
- 20:57SPEAKER_00: This dynamic doesn't work for me anymore.
- 20:59SPEAKER_00: I need more.
- 21:00SPEAKER_00: I need more emotional presence, not just physical proximity.
- 21:06SPEAKER_00: I need more conversation, not just about logistics and children.
- 21:12SPEAKER_00: I want to be deeply seen, heard, not just your flatmate, your housemate, not just tolerated.
- 21:19SPEAKER_00: So whatever that is for you, ask for more.
- 21:22SPEAKER_00: So go back to the questions and ask yourself, where am I softening my truth to keep the peace?
- 21:27SPEAKER_00: Where or when did I learn that?
- 21:29SPEAKER_00: And where did I where or when did I learn that asking for what I want, asking for more means I'm too much.
- 21:37SPEAKER_00: Really importantly, key.
- 21:39SPEAKER_00: What does my anger want me to know?
- 21:42SPEAKER_00: And what would it look like to let myself fully feel this?
- 21:46SPEAKER_00: And then name it, somatically release it, communicate it, ask for more.
- 21:53SPEAKER_00: Now, in closing, this really is a call to action, a call to bravery, a call to reclamation.
- 21:59SPEAKER_00: If you've been taught not to ask, if you've been taught not to speak up about your wants, needs, hopes, dreams, if you've been taught not to need more, not to need whatever it is, if you've been taught not to be angry and not to rage, let this be your permission slip.
- 22:18SPEAKER_00: You are allowed to want more than what so far has been handed to you.
- 22:23SPEAKER_00: You are allowed to say this isn't enough.
- 22:26SPEAKER_00: You are allowed to say I want, I want more, or I want different or I want less of X, Y, or Z.
- 22:32SPEAKER_00: None of that makes you wrong or bad or greedy or ungrateful.
- 22:36SPEAKER_00: And you are allowed to feel rage.
- 22:39SPEAKER_00: You're allowed to let it rise, let it be felt and seen.
- 22:43SPEAKER_00: You're allowed to speak it and to honour what it's trying to tell you.
- 22:48SPEAKER_00: Your rage is not bad or wrong, it's not your enemy, it's that fierce fire of your inner truth.
- 22:56SPEAKER_00: It's burning bright, it's giving you a message, it's giving you a signal, even if you've tried really hard all your life to suppress it, to minimize it, to push it down, to push it away, to ignore it.
- 23:09SPEAKER_00: You can use it.
- 23:10SPEAKER_00: You can use it to fuel your courage, your bravery, to speak up, to set boundaries, and to really ask for and demand the life you want, you deserve, you're worthy of.
- 23:24SPEAKER_00: So don't dim the fire of your rage.
- 23:26SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid of it.
- 23:28SPEAKER_00: Own it, use it, let it lead you to everything you've been hoping and waiting for.
- 23:35SPEAKER_00: Your anger is not dangerous, it is your deep truth.
- 23:38SPEAKER_00: So use it, honour it, speak it, and then ask for what you want, ask for more.
- 23:45SPEAKER_00: Your rage is valid and your voice really matters.
- 23:49SPEAKER_00: As I said, let this be your call to action, your call to bravery, your call to reclamation, to access, tap into, honour and allow all of who you are, including your rage.
- 24:03SPEAKER_00: As always, thank you for being here.
- 24:05SPEAKER_00: Until next week, bye for now.
- 24:10SPEAKER_00: I'm Sally Ann Hartnell, divorce coach and strategist, and you've been listening to Reflect, Reclaim and Liberate.
- 24:16SPEAKER_00: You can follow me on Instagram at Reflect Coaching, and if you can think of anyone who would love or benefit from listening to this episode, please share it with them.
- 24:24SPEAKER_00: I'd also be so grateful if you would follow and review the podcast so we can get it in the ears of a whole lot more people just like you who are ready to reclaim and liberate themselves in life and love.
- 24:35SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll join me next week for another episode of Reflect, Reclaim and Liberate.
- 24:40SPEAKER_00: Until then,