Let’s talk about rage.
Not irritation. Not frustration. Rage. The kind that sits in your chest like a storm. The kind that shows up when someone cuts you off in traffic. But really, it’s about the thousand other things you’ve been forced to swallow down.
In our latest episode of If You Have Feelings, we sat down with Vanessa Terese of Power Turned On works directly with people learning to work with their rage… not against it.
We talk about how to hold space for big, overwhelming anger; how to unlearn the shame around expressing it; and how rage, when honored, can actually become a source of clarity, power, and transformation.
The Emotion That Refuses To Say Quiet
Vanessa knows that rage well. She expresses how anger was the first emotion that finally broke through years of being shut down, silenced, or made to feel like her emotions were “too much.” Like many of us, she was taught to perform politeness, especially as a Latina woman. But the rage? That refused to stay quiet.
“I was so disconnected from my emotions for so long. But rage? That one showed up. Loud and clear.”
Rage Isn’t the Problem. Silence Is.
We live in a culture that’s afraid of female anger, queer anger, Black and Brown anger. But the truth is, rage is often the most honest response to a world that gaslights your experience. Rage can show us what needs to change.
“For me, it was like… how do I not shrink? How do I not make myself smaller just to be accepted? My rage was asking for expansion. For breath. For space to exist fully.”
Vanessa shared how her rage didn’t destroy her. It revealed her. It gave her access to truth. To boundaries. To healing.
That’s what no one tells you: rage is clarity. Rage says, this is not okay. Rage says, something matters here. Rage says, I deserve more than this.
When You Don’t Know How to Be Angry, You Don’t Know How to Be Free
Vanessa spent years pushing her emotions down, especially in her relationships. She didn’t want to rock the boat, didn’t want to be “too much.” But it only led to disconnection from herself, from others, from what she actually needed.
“I started to realize that the rage wasn’t making me bitter. I was making me honest. I had to stop being afraid of my own fire.”
That fire turned into fuel. Vanessa began speaking up, setting boundaries, and giving herself permission to feel the full spectrum, not just what’s palatable.
So let’s ask the real question:
Who benefits from your silence? Who told you that rage was dangerous? What did they gain by keeping you quiet?
Reclaiming Rage, Reclaiming Power
This isn’t about rage for rage’s sake. It’s about channeling it. Vanessa started painting again. She leaned into breathwork. She had hard conversations. And she found that when she stopped being afraid of her anger, she was able to move through it, rather than around it.
“I needed to scream. Not because I was out of control, but because I was finally in control of my voice.”
Rage is sacred. Rage is fuel. Rage can be a map if you let it.
So ask yourself:
- What’s the emotion under your rage?
- What are you being asked to hold that isn’t yours?
- Where are you being asked to shrink, and where can you expand instead?
Because feeling rage doesn’t make you broken. It makes you alive. And turning rage into fuel? That makes you powerful.
About Vanessa Terese
Vanessa (she/her) is a visionary healer and modern-day mystic who helps high-performing women build lives that turn them all the way on, stop burning out and let go of being productive so they can be themselves. She’s devoted to the sacred and the strategic, blending shamanism with performance coaching to awaken wild power, full-spectrum self-expression, and unapologetic genius. Her work is ancient, radical, and a little bit renegade. It bridges deep spiritual initiation with real-world mastery. Think mystic meets results. Pleasure meets performance. And women who stop shrinking, they start showing up as the icons they were born to be.
Follow @powerturnedon on Instagram or visit her website for more.
