Angry Birds

Quiet recently, when I was on my return trip from Mumbai, waiting to board the flight, I saw a number of people busily engaged with their smart phones and iPads. Just out of curiosity, I peeped into to see, what they were actually doing. To my surprise, I noticed that most of them, right from small kids to the corporate guys were invariably playing the new popular game, “ANGRY BIRDS”. I am sure most of you have tried your hands on this game. For those who have not, let me give a glimpse of it. It is a game, where a set of angry birds attack the pigs that have stolen their eggs.  In this game, the birds hurl themselves from a pre-fixed sling, target the pigs and go bombard them. The game goes on with different levels of difficulty and is quiet interesting.

I was just thinking why this game has become so popular. I realised that most people find it as a great tool for releasing their stress. So, how does playing “angry birds” help to release stress? Let us introspect.

Stress is basically our inability to cope up with personal and social expectations. When what happens in our life is not in accordance to what we expect to happen, we feel disappointed, angry and frustrated.  For example, “You see someone misbehaving in the public. You feel like going and giving two blows on his face, but due to the fear of legitimate consequences, you just hold the anger, curse the guy within yourself and move away from the place. This anger which came in to you has not gone out, because it could not find a suitable expression. The anger remains subdued and builds up within you as passive anger. This passive anger leads to mounting of stress. The sub conscious mind keeps looking for a way to release this anger, so that the stress is offloaded from our mind. Have you observed that many times when we have had a bad day at office or a social place, we come and take out our anger, on our spouse or children, by shouting or yelling at them for a no significant mistake of theirs. It is mostly our loved ones, who take up the entire dump and still try to understand and console us. The moment you shout out, you feel a lot relieved and you are able to focus your mind on work. If you do not do so or do not have an opportunity to let out your anger, your mind continues to feel disturbed. This is where a game like “angry bird” helps. Though in the game, it is the birds that are destroying the pigs; your mind feels a comfort of having destroyed something or someone that has been annoying you.

The same principle applies, why people enjoy watching movies. If you look at typical Indian cinema, you will see that a hero is endowed with super powers that a normal person like you and me, can never even dream of. Now, everyone watching the movie tends to personify himself as the hero, in their mind.  When the hero thrashes a gang of rowdies, the one who is watching the movie, feels a sense of gratification, as if he himself has performed the act.

I have heard that in Japan, some companies have a separate room where a punching bag is left hanging. Whenever any employee feels stressed up, due to the rude behaviour of his boss or co-worker, he just goes inside this room gives a few punches and kicks on the punching bag and returns back to his work table with a sense of instant relief.

Our elders have taught us, whenever you get angry count from 1 to 10 and you will see your anger subside. The idea behind this is, when we practice this method, we can bring our anger to our own awareness. We can analyse the reason for our anger and find a better way of expressing it, so that we achieve the desired result. The famous Tamil poet Bharathiyar has said, “Rowthram pazhagu”. He did not say, suppress your anger but he said, “Learn to express your anger wisely.” People do crazy things in a fit of anger and later repent for what they did. I have heard that, even many murderers confess, that they committed the crime out of impulse and it was not intentional. Anger is temporary madness. By learning to handle it, we can be better human beings. Whenever, you get angry remembers this, “Anger is not a show of strength, but a sign of weakness.” Be watchful. 

Short vents of little anger are better than one big vent of accumulated anger. Do not keep anger mounting within you. It is bad for your health. If not for anyone else, be happy that you at least have the “angry birds”, to free you from stress.

      

Happy Reading,

   

D. Senthil Kannan

 Article dated Nov'11