Wow, well done! Anger is almost always a secondary emotion. You were insulted and embarrassed. Your feelings were hurt and you responded as most of us do with anger. The anger happened after the insult and the feelings of powerlessness and is an automatic response to that. It is a mental adaptation that has kept us from being eaten or killed by someone from a different group since the Pleistocene.
To move from there to sympathy rocks. I sometimes never get there, but I know from long experience that until I do, I continually pay a price, my stomach is not calm, my mind does not focus. I am proud to know you - Thank You
Julie