According to Brad Bushman (who is a professor of communications at The Ohio State University in Columbus), almost all of us undergo situations that left us rumbling in anger. To take us out of the burning feeling, we often vent to someone, but it’s not the right strategy.
Instead of venting anger or filling it in yourself, one must go for approaches of turning down the heat said Bushman to Dr. Sanjay Gupta (CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent).
He further added that anger is one of the various emotional responses to an actual or imaginary danger or incitement. It has various forms (ranges from mild irritation to blind rage), when left unaddressed it can take a serious toll on health including cardiovascular disease.
According to Ryan Martin (an associate dean and professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay), when our emotions are stimulated they turn on your fight-or-flight response, which can tighten up your muscles, increase the heart rate, and slows down the digestive system.
Managing Anger Best and Worst Coping Mechanisms
To be able to manage your response to everyday life stressors, some coping mechanisms are more could prove to be more effective than others. This post talks about some of the most effective anger management strategies and some tactics that lead to more damage than good.
Deep breathing
When you get angry it spikes your physiological awakening by increasing heart rate and blood pressure. To bring it back to the normal state taking deep breaths to a count of 10 instantly can help you. After breathing exercises, you can do some relaxing yoga, meditation, take long walks, listen to calming music and take bath to unwind Bushman said.
Don’t vent your anger on others
Bushman further explained that anger venting is one of the most popular ways most of us use to blow off steam by telling others why we’re fuming. When you tell people about your cause of anger they validate your feelings and this validation feeds the fire instead of bringing it down, and it keeps the memories in your mind.
Go for solution
We often become angry when we encounter a problem, for example when something interferes with our purpose or is treated disrespectfully. The time you have a fight or flight response, energy begins to surge. This energy that is making you angry should be channeled to find the solution to the problem, Martin explained.
Jett told Gupta that if you fail to channel this energy to some kind of constructive ending, chances are you can just burn up yourself from inside and will be consumed by the flames of your feelings.
Avoid suppressing your anger
According to David H. Rosmarin (assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and research psychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts), suppressing anger seems to be the easiest alternative sometimes when you are fuming, but it’s the worst way to cope with the angry emotion.
And if you ignore anger in the long run then it is a guaranteed way to upsurge its power over time. So try to resolve the factors that made you angry for peace of mind.
And some people go so far as to remove some people (who anger them) out of their lives. Yes, this strategy can help you suppress the angry emotions for the short time, but the reality on the contrary because different people are going to hurt us at different stages of our lives from time to time, and what we should learn is the right anger cope up strategies, Rosmarin said.
