Tales for Our Times-How Little Lenny Helped Len Transform his Anger

Gifts of Inner Wisdom are messages from our Divine Nature. These messages are most eloquently expressed through images. As we interact with these images, we discover the wisdom, strength and unconditional love waiting for us within.

In Tales for Our Times I offer you narratives drawn from my imagery work and the work of my clients in the hope that you will find the universal wisdom in these Tales both inspiring and beneficial.

How Little Lenny Helped Len Transform his Anger

Len’s angry outbursts threatened to wreck his marriage. His wife, Justine, hated it when he yelled at her, but she became even more upset when he turned his verbal abuse on their two kids. After years of suffering Justine informed Len that if he didn’t do something about his anger, the marriage was over.

As distressing as his anger was to his wife and children, Len’s rage upset himself even more. Len didn’t want to hurt his family. He hated losing control and always felt humiliated afterwards for how he’d acted and the things he’d said. It also bothered him that the issues he cared about never got addressed, because blame was always directed to the problem of his anger.

Len’s father was a rageaholic, with violent unpredictable outbursts that the boy hated.  As a child Len had vowed that he’d never make his own children feel the resentment and hatred he felt toward his dad.  Every time Len found himself acting just like his father, the pain of self hatred became almost unbearable. Truly, much of the anger he was expressing toward his family was actually rage he felt at himself for falling yet again into these destructive patterns.

After struggling for years to control his temper, Len felt helpless to do anything about it. He desperately wanted to save his marriage, though, so we turned to his Inner Wisdom for help.

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The image of himself as a child appears.  Len recognizes little Lenny to be just as he remembers him:  calm and wise, able to understand the craziness going on around him and skillfully navigate through those treacherous waters.  Lenny seems happy, a state Len hasn’t known for much too long.

Len feels deeply touched by the innocence he senses in little Lenny, who has not yet adopted his father’s angry ways.  He tells Lenny that he misses him.  Len tells the boy, “I want to know how to get back to your wisdom.”

Lenny nods his approval.

Len then asks, “How can I reconnect with what you have?  What have I forgotten?  Why could I handle things successfully as a child, and now I have trouble doing that?”

The child responds, “Be naïve, like I am.”

Len recognizes how helpful this could be, but can’t imagine how to do it. He doubts that he can.  I suggest that Len merge with his younger self, so he can experience firsthand what it’s like to know that innocence.

(Merging is a process often used in Interactive Imagery to integrate on an energetic level helpful but unfamiliar ways of being.)

As Len merges with the little boy, he experiences how clean, how pure, how innocent this child is – like a better self.  When he views his wife, son and daughter from the child’s perspective, he feels calm, peaceful and nurturing toward them.  From this perspective, all of the things that enraged him just don’t seem to matter.  Len feels totally transformed.

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In the weeks following this experience, Len reconnected with the innocent perspective of little Lenny any time he felt himself becoming annoyed with his family.  He – and they- have been astonished by the transformation.  He almost never loses his temper any more.  Len and Justine have become more of a team in dealing with the challenges they face.

Len and Justine still have a lot of work to do on their marriage to create a relationship that both can feel comfortable with. Now, though, they can begin working on the problems facing them as a couple without Len’s anger getting in the way.

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What You Can Do

No matter how deeply ingrained your problems with anger may be (or the problems of someone you care about), deep within there is a calm, compassionate part of you that is capable of unconditional love – toward yourself and toward those around you.  This is your Divine Nature.  This is the part that you connect with when you work with Interactive Imagery.

You can connect with this part by allowing yourself to relax deeply and then inviting that calm and loving self to be present.  It may appear to you in the form of an image, or you may just sense a presence.  Once it’s present, you can ask it what it wants you to learn to help you with the problem of your anger.

Be very open to any awareness that comes to you.  If you have questions or concerns, feel free to share them, entering into dialog with your inner wisdom.

If you like, you can ask to merge with whatever appears, so that you can know what it knows, feel what it feels and see your situation from a fresh perspective.

You can ask how to apply what you’ve learned in your day to day life, to help you more successfully handle the situations that annoy you.

Be sure to express gratitude for whatever you’ve received when your interaction has come to an end.

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The more we open to the unconditional love that is always there waiting for us, the more joy and equilibrium we experience in our days here on Earth.