So much good stuff in here. Every line is worthy of highlighting. It's a shame that so far I am the only person to engage with it (in the nearly hour I took with this comment (I'm also watching my Mets game and spoke to my son a few times :-) ), maybe some others have come in).
In May of 2021 I wrote this tanka titled Justified Rage:
"Anger has value
Signals moral core raided
My space invaded
Blood boiling yet controlled rage
Saber of Light rules the page"
You can read the backstory here if it pleases you to do so. https://medium.com/p/6ee693f47da0
While you did not use the term, you advocate well here for the importance of practicing emotional intelligence, especially the value in practicing the pause needed to process an emotion like anger and not throw additional fuel on the fire.
Diana C's 50 prompts for self reflection, https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/50-questions-for-deep-self-reflection-8b42fbdba218 , contained these two: "12. How can you become more mindful of the way you handle composure vs. emotional expression? 13. How can practicing feeling your feelings fully, even when it is deeply uncomfortable, benefit you?" I responded with a poem "Of Emotional Intelligence" ( https://medium.com/p/ffa90d946d59 ) that contained these stanzas:
"Emotions evolutionary prize
other animals may indeed have souls
Feelings allow spirits to realize
Goal of elevating on totem poles
Humans to achieve our intended roles
Feelings spiritually guide egos
Persuade others with ethos and pathos
Here’s an oxymoron to consider
EQ incorporates lots of logos
This concludes dizain portion of dinner
Time for an imayo course, of intense EQ
Do not pursue happiness — it and sadness both fleet
Contentment is where you’ll find, serene state of mind
Allow emotions to flow, return there lest blow
Please understand the stoics, don't push feelings down
The word does not reflect roots, Marcus A. rolls eyes
Do not get carried away, yet please deeply feel
If you lava dome feelings, end up like Pompei"
This leads me to the next brilliance of your piece, the truths about what we can and cannot control, which is the essence of both stoicism and the serenity prayer. I have written a few times about these topics and the spiritual nature of practicing acceptance, most recently in the last piece I published over 3 months ago in which I prompted people to write about what acceptance means to them and what it means to me and how I believe that acceptance does not require accepting the unacceptable as permanent. https://medium.com/promptly-written/spiritual-prompts-for-the-week-of-june-12th-18th-86877724cd6b
Lastly, boundaries, as someone once wrote to me in a comment, which is a play on the old American Express commercials and as I don't know your age I don't know if you recall them--"Boundaries, don't leave home without them." I'll leave you with one more tanka:
My Tanka to the Innocent Autopologisers — The Codapologists
Codependency
Lost self-awareness and worth
Stop eggshell walking
Set and defend boundaries
Proudly assert your power
PS: here’s a poem by my Medium friend Anthi that you will love: https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/sadness-awareness-poetry-spirituality-1d276f11e4e0
