irritating expression - YOU REALLY MADE ME ANGRY.

This really gets my goat (as far as this expression goes) when a person says:

YOU MADE ME ANGRY.

No, I refuse to believe it or accept it. Yes I know that as creatures, us humans are closely entwined in the emotions we put out and we feel from others. It is not tangible in many ways and certainly not measurable through scientific process.

The way that our eminating vibes are most easily observed is generally through facial expression, tone of voice and body stance. In the western cultures, especially Italian (if I may be so bold to suggest), emotions are clearly visible and expressed. Usually a person on the receiving end of such a conversation will have no doubt as to the mood of the unhappy individual.

Other cultures, such as the Japanese for example, such open exhibition of emotion would be to lose face. A dignified external appearance is crucial for one's social standing. I think the British upper classes are similar in quite a few ways. Personally I love their dry sense of humour when the Brits are laughing at you behind a straight face. Slapstick humour seldom appeals to me, although sometimes Jim Carry makes me laugh at his extreme posturing.

When someone yawns, what is it's impact? Don't you have this incredible urge to yawn? (Even just thinking about it makes me yawn? what about you?) I wonder why another person's yawn impacts us. Even when we think about our previous yawn, it makes us yawn. I will have to change this topic as I can't stop yawning.

When a group of people are laughing and smiling, it often affects us the same way and we find ourselves laughing or smiling without knowing the reason to do so.

BUT negative emotions, such as anger, how does it affect you? What about when you are teased? Do you find yourself getting angry? Some people have told me that anger is a secondary emotion and we have a choice whether to get angry or not. My family refuses to believe me.

YOU REALLY MADE ME ANGRY.

It really concerns me that people believe that their mood can be affected by others. It is actually terrible to think that your mindset can be controlled by others. Because of my religion as being a Latter-day Saint, I have never drunk alcohol in my entire life. My friends sometimes ask me how I can refuse a drink because I don't know what it is like? "Just one", "take a sip", "taste mine", "you won't even know it's alcohol" and so on. My religious background is my primary motivator but also I hate the thought of not being able to control myself or for my mind to be handicapped. It is so bad for me that I hate going to sleep but am forced to by the pain in my eyeballs; I just have to close them. I have no choice, yet when I have to wake up in the morning, I am reluctant to get up as it is sooooooo nice in bed, especially if I am half dozing.

So yes, I like to have control of my emotions. However, in the last few years I find my emotional moodswings quite abnormal. I have been told that my serotonin levels will not be normal anymore as a result of the surgery on my spine in 2015. So my family have to cope with unbalanced moods on a fairly regular basis. Luckily for me, my girls are patient and my wife is wonderful in dealing with me. For example my nephew was very badly behaved and it put me (I allowed myself!) in a bad mood. When I stopped to think about it, I realised that I had accepted a bad mood. Yes, the nephew was an idiot but why should I allow it to affect me? It actually goes against my personal understanding.

But the best thing is that I am more sympathetic to those that "really get angry because you..."

Yes things are completely different to the troops in the front line as compared to the general, many miles behind the front line who are not in the heat of battle.

Discipline and think about things before problem situations occur, then you will be better able to control yourself in the heat of the moment.