If others’ aggression, directed at others, destabilizes, frightens, or paralyzes you, it indicates a reflection of your suppressed aggression. It suggests difficulty managing your aggression.

If your aggression overwhelms you, or you enjoy it without limits, it indicates being trapped in childhood trauma or living out unexpressed aggression from others. After aggressing someone, self-aggression follows in the form of guilt, depression, failure, physical symptoms, etc.

This exercise allows you to give your aggression the space it needs. Our survival owes a great debt to the aggression of our ancestors. Aggression is a survival reaction to life’s abuse. Behind every aggression lies immense blocked pain, waiting to be recognized.

Therapy does not involve reliving the trauma or expressing aggression. This would only retraumatize and increase the emotional burden of anger and guilt. Begin by loving and honouring your aggression with this exercise. Later, you may need exercises like “Integrating Trauma,” “When an Emotion Overwhelms Us,” or “Pure Movement” to represent aggression, and “Ordering Our Life” to leave aggression in the past.

After centering, imagine two places, one in front of the other. In one, imagine your aggression; in the other, you are there. First, find out what both feel; alternately immerse yourself in your aggression and then in yourself, for a minute, allowing movement, not emotion. Focus deeply on achieving this.

Return to your aggression for a longer time. When you sense the movement is stuck, go back to representing yourself. Say, “I see the pain behind you,” and let yourself be carried by the movement. If, after ten minutes, the embrace has not occurred, stop and resume the exercise in a week. In the meantime, do one or two of the mentioned systemic exercises. If you have embraced your aggression, enjoy its strength and love. Notice that its anger has transformed into love.