Sacred Rage: The Power We Were Taught to Fear

“The world doesn’t need more silent, passive women. The world needs more angry women.”- Greta Thunberg

And she’s right.

Because when we witness injustice, genocide, war, corruption, environmental destruction, oppression, the natural, human response isn’t silence. It’s rage. It’s love, burning hot. It’s grief, turned outward. It’s care, demanding action.

Yet, for thousands of years, women have been silenced. Conditioned. Dismissed. Our anger has been pathologised, minimised, ridiculed, or simply called “hormonal.” We’ve heard it all:

“You’re just being emotional.”

“Is it that time of the month?”

“She must be menopausal.”

*“Calm down.”

“Don’t be so irrational.”

Our culture tells us: if a woman is angry, she must be unstable. If a man is angry, he’s powerful, passionate, strong. We live inside that double standard every single day.

But what people often fail to understand is this:

Women’s anger is not mindless rage.

Women’s anger is a response, not a reaction.

It comes from love.

We get angry because we care.

We get angry because we witness harm.

We get angry because we know what it’s like to be unheard, unsafe, dismissed.

The cost of suppressing our sacred rage…

Many of my clients have asked me over the years:

“What do I do with the anger that’s been trapped in my body for years?”

Because suppression has a cost.

When we hold down rage, it doesn’t simply disappear. It festers inside. It shows up as chronic illness, inflammation, digestive issues, autoimmune conditions, anxiety, depression, even disconnection from ourselves and our communities.

As Gabor Maté says:

“When we repress anger, we are turning off a critical warning system of the body.”

Sacred rage is not violence

Here’s where many people get confused.

Rage, when allowed to build and build without safe release, can explode.

But sacred rage is not an uncontrolled explosion.

Sacred rage is conscious. Intentional. Focused. Powerful. Creative.

It’s the fuel behind activism.

It’s the passion behind movements for justice.

It’s the fire behind every woman who has ever said: “Enough.”

Audre Lorde called it out beautifully:

“Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision, it can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.”

Somatic pathways to honour your rage…

Anger is energy. It needs movement. Expression. Witness.

In my own journey, and with my clients, I’ve seen the healing that happens when we give rage a safe outlet:

🥊 Buy a punch bag.

I did this recently. Boxing gloves and all. It was one of the best investments I’ve made for my nervous system. The physical release allows me to safely discharge the energy, so it doesn’t simmer and leak out sideways onto those I love.

Somatic practices.

• Shaking

• Roaring

• Dancing wildly

• Stomping

• Vocal toning

Allowing your body to express what words cannot always hold.

🌀 Embodying the wild woman archetype.

The one who refuses to be tamed, shamed, or silenced.

The discomfort of others

One of the hardest parts of healing your relationship with anger is this:

When you become at peace with your own anger, it confronts those who are not.

Even saying the word anger can make people visibly uncomfortable. Because they’ve been taught that anger is dangerous.

But the wild woman knows:

Anger can be sacred. It can be medicine.

Rage as fuel for change

Look at every movement for justice:

• Civil rights

• Women’s suffrage

• Climate justice

• #MeToo

They were born from collective sacred rage.

As Brené Brown says:

“Anger is a catalyst. Holding on to it will make you bitter. Acting on it will change the world.”

We are living in a world that needs women who are no longer afraid to feel and express their sacred rage.

The world needs you.

The world needs your anger.

The world needs your care.

Let’s normalise it. Honour it.

Channel it into action, not shame.

You are not “too much.”

You are exactly what this world needs right now.

If this resonates with you and you’re ready to explore somatic ways to safely release and work with your sacred rage, reach out. My 1:1 sessions are a supportive space for you to bring your whole self , rage, grief, love and all.

With love & rage, Lauren