In order to master anger management, you need to gain control over your emotions.
You’ll need to get into a mindset that allows you to think before you act or speak.
If you don’t learn to control your anger, you may destroy the relationships around you and cause physical and emotional harm to everyone, including yourself.
About Anger
Anger serves an important purpose. Anger is an emotion that tells us that something is wrong. It may even help us to get out of dangerous situations, but sometimes the threats are just perceived and anger is not an appropriate emotion.
Anger itself is not the main problem here, though. It may help you to try to feel less angry in some situations, but for the most part your goal should be to learn how to express yourself in a healthier way.
Here are some strategies that will help you to keep a cool head:
1. Don’t React.
Think about the situations that have gotten you into trouble in the past. You likely immediately reacted to the problem at hand with angry emotions. Whenever you’re presented with a stressful situation, it’s important withhold rash reactions. Think about what’s really going on, and then decide how you really feel about everything.
2. Take Cool Down Time.
You’re not always in a situation where you can take as long as you want without a reaction. If you’re feeling extremely angry, make sure you take a few moments of cool down time. Before you react, try counting to ten in order to give yourself at least a moment to get into the right mindset.
3. Don’t Worry About Others.
Sometimes you feel terrible about other people’s opinions of you. When you get caught up in making everyone else happy, you end up forgetting about yourself. This is how your emotions can take control, but you can only ignore yourself for so long.
4. Start Exercising.
A daily exercise routine can help you to release energy and emotions. If anger arises, you can also go out for a walk or play some sports as an outlet for that anger.
5. Don’t Hold Grudges.
A grudge only hurts you in the long run. Learn the art of forgiving and forgetting. This will bring peace to you and the person you’re holding a grudge against.
6. Practice Relaxation.
Anger arises more often if you’re tense and stressed. Study different relaxation techniques that will help you to unwind.
Some of these techniques include:
* Yoga
* Meditation
* Taking a Bath
* Deep Breathing
* Listening to Music
* Journaling
7. Learn Healthy Anger Expression.
The trick is not to completely ignore your anger, but to express it in a healthy manner. After you have taken some cool down time, consider your words and communicate why you’re feeling angry in a calm fashion.
Suppressing Your Anger
You may think that you have mastered your anger, but you might actually be suppressing your anger, which could end up making everything worse.
When you suppress your anger it ends up buried deep inside and will come out in undesirable ways. You could start to feel overly stressed, you could get headaches, or you may even start to have problems with high blood pressure. Your mental health may begin to suffer as well. Suppressing anger has been known to lead to life-long problems with depression.
You should remember that if you’ve been feeling especially out of control, seek the help of a health professional.
