Anger; A Positive and Negative Emotion
We feel different emotions throughout the day. Some emotions are positive, some are negative, others are a mix of positive and negative (though we a lot of the time don’t experience them that way, either at the time we have them or because they are not, or at least are nor overwhelmingly more one thing than another such as appreciation or regret). It is certainly fair to say that we will all feel angry for at least some of the time in our lives.
Most of the time, people regard anger as ugly, vile and bad. But this is not always the case. Sometimes, being angry can be ‘good’. But those ‘good’ qualities here can serve to support the ‘bad’ qualities of anger.
What is Anger?
We know that anger is an emotion because we do things and feel certain things when we are angry. For example imagine you were cut off in traffic. Is your anger for the action of being cut off by them. Or was it they did something that bothered you; what they did was a threat to you. Say, they cut you off and they didn’t even notice that you were there, putting you at risk of a bad wreck because they are irresponsible. Now see why you are angry; You may be upset because that idiot’s driving puts me in danger of death. It’s a judgement you make in regard to their behaviour.
The same applies to threats to emotion. If you take a test and you fail, you may get angry. Yet that anger isn’t a result of, say, a punch in the face. Instead, a perceived threat to your psychological and psychic wellbeing stings your ego, you may regard yourself as a failure for example and that threatens your sense of self confidence or ego. Likewise, ‘fear alters the red, green colour contrast sensitivity’. Fear is, like anger, a lot of the time experienced paired with another emotion, such as sadness. And fear is seldom felt on its own.
Managing Anger
And if anger isn’t all bad, can it be used for good? It is not just that anger is something we all feel but not everyone shows it. Hopefully you are asking yourself a few questions by now. And hopefully, your answers won’t be so surprising if you think you will be surprised. First and foremost anger can be controlled. This is great news. After all, this means that we, as humans, have control over how we feel. We have control over our anger; they are not unstoppable forces that we must ride out like storms at sea.
Do Not Hold Your Anger In
Perhaps the most important point when talking about how to control your anger is to make sure that you do not bury it deep down beside you. If you bury your anger, you will find ways, sometimes extremely inconvenient ones, to express it. The anger in you may explode when you are least prepared to control it also and probably the most severe issue with maintaining internal anger is also what is the hardest sacrifice to your body; long term anger can be highly detrimental to your organs. Among the important affected organs, this was proved to be especially bad for your heart. That feeling of anger built up inside you has the potential to raise your blood pressure, which in accounts for a range of diseases. instead, the most constructive and healthiest way you can counteract anger with is letting it out in a constructive, healthy manner.
How to Release Anger in a Healthy Manner
If we know holding in anger is bad and can be dangerous, then we should be able to know what the healthy, respectable way for anger is to burst out, in the hope that we can do it this way, since we heard of people doing this dangerous way and do not want to end up doing it the same way.
For example, burning our anger by exploding at another person and getting aggressive and hitting things is a bad way to get rid of anger. There are many different ways of getting rid of anger which are safe and does not bring on embarrassment later.
One of them is to exercise if you are angry. There are so many ways you can expend the energy of anger and tension by lifting weights, running, swimming, biking etc.
The second way of expressing this is to scream into a pillow or into one’s bed. Which is a lot of the time a very cathartic thing to do. To get the tension out without upsetting anyone else and without the embarrassment of screaming at a person.
Lastly, you can release anger by taking a deep breath. Deep breathing is soothing for the body as it puts one in a relaxed state. Taking in deep breaths to fully breathe out the anger can help and is very achievable.
Managing Your Emotions is Key
While anger has a bad reputation, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to feel anger. It’s a natural response. The key when angry, in order not to be overwhelmed by it, is to stay in control and express it in a healthy and reasonable manner. A few ways of releasing anger have been outlined. These may or may not work for you. Regardless of that, it’s very important to keep practising ways to manage and release anger for a person’s physical and mental health. Learning more about anger by taking an anger management session or workshop is ideal for those who need personalised assistance.
