Do you have smelly feet? If you do, it is because, once upon a time, you picked up someone else’s smelly feet germs, walking barefoot.  Then, you wore your socks and shoes with your smelly feet germs, and the germs and smell got transferred to your shoes and socks.  But now, even after you bathe, your feet still stink, because you are still wearing those old smelly shoes and socks, reigniting the smelly feet smell, making it an interminable problem. 

The solution: Clean your feet and throw out all your shoes and socks.  Get rid of everything. Get it all out!  Wash your feet and begin anew with brand new shoes and socks that have never been worn before, and your problem will evaporate, forever solved.

It is the same with anger: If you feel anger now, it is likely because at some point in your past, you ran into an angry person who took their anger out on you. Like picking up someone else’s smelly feet germs, you picked up their anger and started carrying it around.

I used to think smelly feet was an inherent part of me, because for as long as I can remember, I had them. Not until cancer, when I did chemotherapy, did I learn otherwise. Chemotherapy eradicated all my quickly multiplying cells, and thus, my smelly feet germs, too. For the first time in my life, my feet didn’t smell.  It was then I learned that smelly feet were not an inherent part of me, after all! Who knew? My feet do not actually smell: They just picked up, and retained, traces of a polluted environment.

It is the same with anger. We are not inherently angry. We simply picked up our angry feelings from a polluted environment—an environment polluted with anger—others’ angry feelings and actions arousing our own.

We must break the cycle (of anger and smelly feet).  Throw everything out. Start anew—every little remnant (of anger or smelly feet germs) must go.

We must stop infecting the world with our anger.  We must stop carrying it around—it is an unnecessary burden that pollutes the world around us, making our lives a living hell.  Instead, let us begin anew and make our world a living heaven (emotionally and odorwise).

 Throwing everything out (old shoes and socks, and then thoroughly washing our feet) is akin to letting go of the past and releasing negative emotion (which can be done physically through the daily practice of yoga and mentally through forgiveness),  allowing us to start anew.