There’s quite a notion to opening up and sharing and confiding or rather expressing one’s thoughts and feelings and experience that is known to be cathartic a dwelling in the largely held understanding of it. Pent up emotions, particularly those felt in the frustrating or angering assertions of them is never considered safe to bottle up within oneself and one is encouraged often to find for themselves an outlet through which these negative sparks of the mind can find ejection. And very naturally and therefore most often what we end up doing in all adhering to that universal advice in letting our minds free from that mess of sorts is by resorting to the classic way in venting and ranting.
Rants make for such a classicly embedded part of our existences that without them we feel as if we really haven’t lived to the grind for once. As daily rituals and also as occasional ‘indulgences’, spawned out of the most pettiest of issues or derived from seriously stressing encounters, directed at times to the ones we are closest with while blurting out in front of pretty much anyone we can manage to grab a ear of, this is an essential aid of living without which we perhaps would go crazy.
Validated thus by the world in psychological basis of it, it comes as much a surprise that ranting isn’t actually as psychologically ideal a solution to dealing with everyday issues of triggering measure. Many a scientific studies and researches have in fact established that ranting tends to be largely futile an action in whatever pursuit of its practicing. Not only is ranting as a way of life not the healthiest of coping mechanisms, it also is practically useless in that it has been found to be of no help whatsoever. And given also how there are way more number of ways in ‘improper ranting’ over the ‘etiquette’ of its proper practice and ranting can very well present to be another premise for your problems rather than being the solution of them.
The reason why ranting holds appeal to all of us as a quick, convenient and purgatory way of dealing with anger and frustration and stress is because of the instant effect of it. At that moment in time when we are actively ‘enjoying’ that process in ranting, this expressing in exactness the immense intensity of whatever we have been feeling all through might seem like the right or even the safe way in handling with the negativities that life comes inevitably stocked in. But beyond that immediate and momentary gratification, ranting has no real riches to boast about in the long run. This though is a fact that tends to not attract attention mainly because of the fallacious premise upon which the very ‘ideals’ of venting and ranting and the like has been established to be apt cases in emotional healing.
Availed out of a Freudian belief in the cathartic nature of pouring one’s heart and mind out, this happens largely to be a myth though to the extent that there hasn’t really been much empirical evidence to substantiate such claims even in considerable continuity of cultural acceptance. Ranting is what people does to ward off stress since it indeed occurs as relaxing in the first place. But this initial response availed out of ranting is also what tricks us to compulsively rant about every single thing and experience such that it becomes a habit we take to even not so consciously.
It is in this very prospect in ‘duping’ almost that ranting tends to be more bad than good since it lures one with a reward that seems promising but is actually quite hollow when one comes to weigh its nature. In presenting as something we naturally begin to practice without realising it almost, ranting opens us up to the dangers brought about by too much an expression of the self such that it might emerge as oversharing while also exposing us to the risks and consequences of blurting it all in front of just about any and everyone. But mainly still, ranting is not the most effective way in dealing with the ordinary everyday trials and tribulations of life because it does not in any way free us from the evil grips of anger and in fact works to rather accentuate our experiences in frustrating and upsetting ramifications of them.
Venting in whatever way and manner of its doing, ranting included, ends up sustaining anger because it indeed is a means of practicing it. But it also brings forth other unwanted consequences in unhealthy emotional retributions like the one that has us playing the victim for instance. Why this is potentially something untoward earned out of ranting is easy to decipher though. We rant about something or against someone because we believe that we have been wronged in however mild or severe assertions of it to incite us to experience anger, frustration, irritation or such other feelings in utmost negativity. What guides therefore our intention in ranting whether we persist on that trail very consciously or somewhat unaware instead is our dead sure conviction of ourselves. And while being so certain about the negativity directed to us is sure a necessary intuition in protecting ourselves from that toxic flow of energy, the case might not always be as clear cut as such.
When we rant the principle we absolutely work along is the belief that we are most definitely in the right and it is a consequence of us being wronged that is leading us to blabber in the first place. Manifesting thus the victim role for ourselves while unintentionally but definitely coercing the one in front of whom we are ranting to harbour that same view is what this very common activity in much ‘release’ effects out of our circumstance. Over time this behavior becomes so integral a part of our nature that we fail to recognise even when we might be in the wrong such that our whole perception of ourselves tends to be unfairly skewed by the ranting exercise in relaxation.
Being a verbal mode of expressing anger, rants occur most definitely as a burst of aggressiveness with strong feelings of dislike and frustration and perhaps even contempt building up to its ultimate eruption in all such intense experience of the emotions. Which is why ranting itself can be considered as aggressive behavior or at least be held as the ground upon which a future course of aggressive actions can very well come to gain traction. This is because ranting about pretty much everything has the brain and mind believe in such volatility as being the only possible way in dealing with emotions which in turn only enhances the experiencing of similar such high intensity episodes even when they might not even be always as significant.
Why ranting tends to be worthless therefore in tending to achieve true purgation of the soul is its necessity to remain rooted longer in the miseries of what had you ranting in the first place. As we rant we relive once again that very experience in uneasiness and stress and negativity, thereby immersing ourselves deeper into the all engulfing clutches of the emotionally unhealthy elements lurking in the already treacherous shadows. Ranting also leads us away from the greater issue at hand in true emotional release- that of attending to the crux of what it is that bothers us so much by having us instead unnaturally obsess with projecting our point of view in experience and in explanation. Because indeed so gratifying the short term effects of ranting can span out to be that draws attention away from the greater need of devising ways to channelise our emotions such that we are better prepared to deal with similar such recountings in the future instead of yielding in to yet another unproductive session in ranting.
To that extent and in this capacity, ranting might be not recommended a mechanism due to its limitations in not being a holistic approach to dealing with stuff. Whether the concern is one of counterproductivity or of not serving any purpose whatsoever or only attending to things on the surface of them, ranting sure then isn’t the recipe for relaxation and letting go. Plus it weighs down also upon our behavior by having us stand unduly to whatever it is we deem to be right even in blatantly untrue assertions of them. But beyond this mechanism of working in internal ‘exploitation’, ranting also can assume risks that interfere with so many other aspects of our existence.
That relates to the ‘proper’ deliberation that should necessarily proceed every ranting sesh, should it be so unavoidable a part and parcel of our lives. Mindlessly ranting about anything and everything in front of anyone and everyone can turn out to be disastrous for our personal, professional and social lives as a whole. Because those all ears for any ‘sensitive’ remark that might have slipped out of us in our immense engrossment with the technique long held wrongly can very well exploit that single utterance in extreme emotional context and use it against us. Even if they do not hold such divulgences of a bit too personal carry over as a weapon of assault of our person, they still might come to form within themselves an unfavourable opinion of us based on our conduct.
The same holds true for the even augmented possibility of the online rants where it is an entire audience of multidimensional reach and understanding waiting to digitally make your life a living hell that gets as real as it can. The possibilities are endless as to what can go wrong and to the extents that they might go wrong if we give in to this lure of the rant much as if it were some luxury, easily affordable though but coming at a price most definitely. And that indeed is all the irony that there can be in wanting to live through a spree of the rants instantly rewarding perhaps but never any enriching for sure.
