Anger Management

Aristotle quoted “Anybody can become angry, that is easy, but to be angry with right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

Anger is a normal, healthy emotion, but when chronic, explosive anger spirals out of control, it can have serious consequences for your relationships, your health, and your state of mind. Anger is a very powerful emotion that can stem from feelings of frustration, hurt, annoyance, or disappointment. Anger is also a mixture of both emotional and physical changes.

Anger is like fire, it can burn you if it is not controlled. It can create disasters so it needs to be channelled productively. For e.g.- Fire when used in a controlled way aids in cooking food but uncontrolled fire may lead to destruction. Anger takes everyone in its arms. Whenever a person is angry, the people near him get angry too. Anger makes everyone a slave and a victim.

When you get angry your adrenaline flows, your heart rate increases, and your blood pressure escalates. The phrase, "I'm so mad my blood is boiling" isn't that far from true when you fly into a rage! Anger also leads to various health problems. So it is necessary to control anger. Following are the ill effects on health due to anger:-

• Headache
• Digestion problems, such as abdominal pain
• Insomnia
• Increased anxiety
• Depression
• High blood pressure
• Heart attack
• Stroke

So is there a way to get away from anger? Yes there is.

With insight about the real reasons for your anger and these anger management tools, you can learn to keep your temper from hijacking your life. Following are some of the ways:-

• Do Meditation
• Deep Breathing: Slowly repeat a calm word or phrase such as "relax" or "take it easy." Repeat it while breathing deeply until the anger subsides.
• Go for Swimming
• Yoga
• Think about the consequences
• Leave the place and to go out for a walk
• Visit a counsellor
• Drink Water
• Count numbers 1-100
• Do Maun Vrat
• Chant OM
• Do pranayama
• Explore what’s really behind the anger
•  Think before you speak
• Never get angry on people who didn’t make you angry. Speak it out to the person who made you angry
• Forgive and forget
• Listen to other person and try to think from his/her point of view
• Remember your deepest values and morals
• Never break things or say things that you will regret later
• Solve the problem and stop playing the blame game
• Keep a diary. It has dual advantages. Firstly, you may be relieved once you write your thoughts on the situation and secondly you may get to know why, how, what, when you reacted to the situation. You may find ways to improve yourself.

Being angry is easy but to control our anger is a hard task. All we need to do is controlling our anger and using it in a productive manner.

As said by Christopher Paolini, “Anger is like poison. You must purge it form your mind or else it will corrupt your better nature”.