Controlling Anger-Before It Controls You
You don’t need to internalize or stuff your anger down to manage your anger. Anger can actually be a healthy emotion if you deal with your feelings well.
So, you want tools to better manage your anger? You’re not the only one who looses your temper from time to time. More likely, you lose your temper at certain specific times. These are your triggers.
First thing: Become aware of your triggers. Is it during the morning rush getting ready for work or school? How about driving there with a vehicle full of fighting kids? Do you get ticked off when your spouse or co-worker doesn’t respond they way you expect they will (and this happens daily)?
When time constraints make you feel pressured and people in your life won’t stop acting in irritating ways, anger management can be your best friend! If you don’t take action now, poor anger management can have long term negative impact in your relationships and leave you feeling unhappy.
I have current and past clients who have really struggled in this area. They get so entrenched in their emotions that they end up feeling stuck, like their emotions are the ones in control. That never feels good.
I would love to help you break free from old ways of responding to stress and help you create new positive ways of dealing with your anger. Below you’ll find a few strategies that will help to decrease the anger you feel and help you use the self control you’ve been given.
- GET AMPLE SLEEP AND EXERCISE–A well rested body and mind help everyone deal with stress in a more positive way. Exercise helps to take your mind off of what is draining you so you feel restored and re-energized. You may scoff at this suggestion but it will help you more than you think.
- FOCUS ON YOU NOT THEM–Avoid using “You” when you are in the middle of a heated conversation. Blaming others won’t help to resolve the situation but rather add fuel to the fire.
- BECOME A SOLUTION SEEKER–Look for what you can learn from the situation that caused you to become angry. The more open you are to growing personally, the more skilled you’ll become at creating new healthy ways of expressing your anger next time.
- BE WISE ABOUT TIMING–When you are feeling so furious you can’t breath properly, you may want to wait to talk about what’s making you so upset. If you let words fly now, you may regret them later.
- REMEMBER WHO YOU’RE IN CONTROL OF–You can’t control others thoughts or actions but you can control yourself. You have been given an incredibly smart mind. If you work on showing up as the woman or man you aspire to be, you will be working muscles in your brain and retraining yourself to respond to stress with wisdom, patience and dare I say, even humor perhaps?
Let me know below or on Facebook what one shift you have made that helps you deal with anger constructively. I’d love to hear and so would everyone else who’s reading. You never know who you have helped by sharing!
With Love,
Amy
