Code 113 - Anger Management
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Anger Management
Anger Management
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Disclaimer
Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy and completeness of the information, it is understood that there is no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of such information and assumes no liability for any damages or loss suffered as a result of any inaccuracy or incompleteness therein. These explanations are intended to provide the entrants to the subject with a basic understanding of as many technical terms. These explanations are not regulations or rules with the force of law. As difficult or detailed questions arise, the participant should seek clarification from their manager or supervisor, rather than attempting to derive precise guidance from these general explanations.
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We all know what anger is, and we've all felt it: whether as
a fleeting annoyance or as full-fledged rage. Anger is a completely normal, usually healthy, human emotion. But when it gets out of control and turns destructive, it can lead to problems at work, in your personal relationships, and in the overall quality of your life. And it can make you feel as though you're at the mercy of an unpredictable and powerful emotion.
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What is Anger?
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The Nature of Anger Anger is "an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation
to intense fury and rage," according to Charles Spielberger, PhD, a psychologist who specializes in the study of anger. Like other emotions, it is accompanied by physiological and biological changes; when you get angry, your heart rate and blood pressure go up, as do the levels of your energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Anger can be caused by both external and internal events. You could be angry at a specific person (Such as a coworker or supervisor) or event (a traffic jam, a canceled flight), or your anger could be caused by worrying or brooding about your personal problems. Memories of traumatic or enraging events can also trigger angry feelings. Anger Management
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Expressing Anger The instinctive, natural way to express anger is to respond aggressively. Anger
is a natural, adaptive response to threats; it inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and to defend ourselves when we are attacked. A certain amount of anger, therefore, is necessary to our survival. On the other hand, we can't physically lash out at every person or object that irritates or annoys us; laws, social norms, and common sense place limits on how far our anger can take us. People use a variety of both conscious and unconscious processes to deal with their angry feelings. The three main approaches are expressing, suppressing, and calming. Expressing your angry feelings in an assertive—not aggressive—manner is the healthiest way to express anger. To do this, you have to learn how to make clear what your needs are, and how to get them met, without hurting others. Being assertive doesn't mean being pushy or demanding; it means being respectful of yourself and others.
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Anger can be suppressed, and then converted or redirected. This happens when you hold in your anger, stop thinking about it, and focus
on something positive. The aim is to inhibit or suppress your anger and convert it into more constructive behavior. The danger in this type of response is that if it isn't allowed outward expression, your anger can turn inward—on yourself. Anger turned inward may cause hypertension, high blood pressure, or depression. Unexpressed anger can create other problems. It can lead to pathological expressions of anger, such as passive-aggressive behavior (getting back at people indirectly, without telling them why, rather than confronting them head-on) or a personality that seems perpetually cynical and hostile. People who are constantly putting others down, criticizing everything, and making cynical comments haven't learned how to constructively express their anger. Not surprisingly, they aren't likely to have many successful relationships.
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Finally, you can calm down inside. This means not just controlling your outward
behavior, but also controlling your internal responses, taking steps to lower your heart rate, calm yourself down, and let the feelings subside. As Dr. Spielberger notes, "when none of these three techniques work, that's when someone—or something—is going to get hurt."
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Anger Management The goal of anger management is to reduce both
your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can't get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions.
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Are You Too Angry? There are psychological tests that measure the
intensity of angry feelings, how prone to anger you are, and how well you handle it. But chances are good that if you do have a problem with anger, you already know it. If you find yourself acting in ways that seem out of control and frightening, you might need help finding better ways to deal with this emotion.
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Why Are Some People More Angry Than Others? According to Jerry Deffenbacher, PhD, a psychologist who specializes
in anger management, some people really are more "hotheaded" than others are; they get angry more easily and more intensely than the average person does. There are also those who don't show their anger in loud spectacular ways but are chronically irritable and grumpy. Easily angered people don't always curse and throw things; sometimes they withdraw socially, sulk, or get physically ill. People who are easily angered generally have what some psychologists call a low tolerance for frustration, meaning simply that they feel that they should not have to be subjected to frustration, inconvenience, or annoyance. They can't take things in stride, and they're particularly infuriated if the situation seems somehow unjust: for example, being corrected for a minor mistake. Anger Management
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What makes these people this way? A number of things. One cause may be genetic or physiological: There is evidence that some children are born irritable, touchy, and easily angered, and that these signs are present from a very early age. Another may be sociocultural. Anger is often regarded as negative; we're taught that it's all right to express anxiety, depression, or other emotions but not to express anger. As a result, we don't learn how to handle it or channel it constructively. Research has also found that family background plays a role. Typically, people who are easily angered come from families that are disruptive, chaotic, and not skilled at emotional communications.
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Is It Good To "Let it All Hang Out?" Psychologists now say that this is a dangerous myth. Some people use this theory as a license to hurt others. Research has found that "letting it rip" with anger actually
escalates anger and aggression and does nothing to help you (or the person you're angry with) resolve the situation. It's best to find out what it is that triggers your anger, and then to develop strategies to keep those triggers from tipping you over the edge.
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Anger Management Techniques Anger is one of the most common and destructive
delusions, and it afflicts our mind almost every day. To solve the problem of anger we first need to recognize the anger within our mind, acknowledge how it harms both ourselves and others, and appreciate the benefits of being patient in the face of difficulties. We then need to apply practical methods in our daily life to reduce our anger and finally to prevent it from arising at all. Anger is a deluded mind that focuses on an animate or inanimate object, feels it to be unattractive, exaggerates its bad qualities, and wishes to harm it. Anger Management
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For example, when we are angry with our partner, at that moment he
or she appears to us as unattractive or unpleasant. We then exaggerate his bad qualities by focusing only on those aspects that irritate us and ignoring all his good qualities and kindness, until we have built up a mental image of an intrinsically faulty person. We then wish to harm him in some way, probably by criticizing or disparaging him. Because it is based on an exaggeration, anger is an unrealistic mind; the intrinsically faulty person or thing that it focuses on does not in fact exist. Moreover, as we shall see, anger is also an extremely destructive mind that serves no useful purpose whatsoever. Having understood the nature and disadvantages of anger, we then need to watch our mind carefully at all times in order to recognize it whenever it begins to arise. Anger Management
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The Faults of Anger
There is nothing more destructive than anger. It destroys our peace and happiness in this life, and impels us to engage in negative actions that lead to untold suffering in future lives. It blocks our spiritual progress and prevents us from accomplishing any spiritual goals we have set ourselves - from merely improving our mind, up to full enlightenment. The opponent to anger is patient acceptance, and if we are seriously interested in progressing along the spiritual path there is no practice more important than this. Anger is by nature a painful state of mind. Whenever we develop anger, our inner peace immediately disappears and even our body becomes tense and uncomfortable. We are so restless that we find it nearly impossible to fall asleep, and whatever sleep we do manage to get is fitful and unrefreshing. It is impossible to enjoy ourself when we are angry, and even the food we eat seems unpalatable. Anger transforms even a normally attractive person into an ugly red-faced demon. We grow more and more miserable, and, no matter how hard we try, we cannot control our emotions.
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One of the most harmful effects of anger is that it robs us of our reason and
good sense. Wishing to retaliate against those whom we think have harmed us, we expose ourselves to great personal danger merely to exact petty revenge. To get our own back for perceived injustices or slights, we are prepared to jeopardize our job, our relationships, and even the well-being of our family and children. When we are angry we lose all freedom of choice, driven here and there by an uncontrollable rage. Sometimes this blind rage is even directed at our loved ones and benefactors. In a fit of anger, forgetting the immeasurable kindness we have received from our friends, family, or Spiritual Teachers, we might strike out against and even kill the ones we hold most dear. It is no wonder that an habitually angry person is soon avoided by all who know him. This unfortunate victim of his own temper is the despair of those who formerly loved him, and eventually finds himself abandoned by everyone.
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Identifying Anger It is very important to identify the actual cause of whatever
unhappiness we feel. If we are forever blaming our difficulties on others, this is a sure sign that there are still many problems and faults within our own mind. If we were truly peaceful inside and had our mind under control, difficult people or circumstances would not be able to disturb this peace, and so we would feel no compulsion to blame anyone or regard them as our enemy. To someone who has subdued his or her mind and eradicated the last trace of anger, all beings are friends. With his mind dwelling in patience, he would remain calm and untroubled, and his love and respect for his assailant would be undiminished. Such is the power of a well-controlled mind. Therefore, if we really want to be rid of all enemies, all we need to do is uproot our own anger. Anger Management
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If we are able to recognize a negative train of thought before it
develops into full-blown anger, it is not too hard to control. If we can do this, there is no danger of our anger being 'bottled up' and turning into resentment. Controlling anger and repressing anger are two very different things. Repression occurs when anger has developed fully in our mind but we fail to acknowledge its presence. We pretend to ourselves and to others that we are not angry - we control the outward expression of anger but not the anger itself. This is very dangerous because the anger continues to seethe below the surface of our mind, gathering in strength until one day it inevitably explodes.
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On the other hand, when we control anger we see exactly
what is going on in our mind. We acknowledge honestly the angry stirrings in our mind for what they are, realize that allowing them to grow will only result in suffering, and then make a free and conscious decision to respond more constructively. If we do this skilfully, anger does not get a chance to develop properly, and so there is nothing to repress. Once we learn to control and overcome our anger in this way, we shall always find happiness, both in this life and in our future lives. Those who truly wish to be happy, therefore, should make the effort to free their minds from the poison of anger. Anger Management
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Why we get Angry Anger is a response to feelings of unhappiness, which in turn arise whenever
we meet with unpleasant circumstances. Whenever we are prevented from fulfilling our wishes, or forced into a situation we dislike - in short, whenever we have to put up with something we would rather avoid - our uncontrolled mind reacts by immediately feeling unhappy. This uncomfortable feeling can easily turn into anger, and we become even more disturbed than before. The other main reason we become unhappy and angry is because we are faced with a situation we do not want or like. Every day we encounter hundreds of situations we do not like, from stubbing our toe or having a disagreement with our partner, to discovering that our house has burnt down or that we have cancer; and our normal reaction to all of these occurrences is to become unhappy and angry. However, try as we might, we cannot prevent unpleasant things happening to us. We cannot promise that for the rest of the day nothing bad will happen to us; we cannot even promise that we shall be alive to see the end of the day.
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Anger & Relationships Anger is particularly destructive in relationships. When we live in close contact with someone, our personalities,
priorities, interests, and ways of doing things frequently clash. Since we spend so much time together, and since we know the other person's shortcomings so well, it is very easy for us to become critical and short-tempered with our partner and to blame him or her for making our life uncomfortable. Unless we make a continuous effort to deal with this anger as it arises, our relationship will suffer. A couple may genuinely love one another, but if they frequently get angry with each other the times when they are happy together will become fewer and further between. Eventually there will come a point when before they have recovered from one row the next has already begun. Like a flower choked by weeds, love cannot survive in such circumstances. Anger Management
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In a close relationship, opportunities to get angry arise many times a day, so to prevent the build-up of bad feelings we need to deal with anger as soon as it begins to arise in our mind. We clear away the dishes after every meal rather than waiting until the end of the month, because we do not want to live in a dirty house nor be faced with a huge, unpleasant job. In the same way, we need to make the effort to clear away the mess in our mind as soon as it appears, for if we allow it to accumulate it will become more and more difficult to deal with, and will endanger our relationship. We should remember that every opportunity to develop anger is also an opportunity to develop patience. A relationship in which there is a lot of friction and conflict of interests is also an unrivalled opportunity to erode away our self-cherishing and self-grasping, which are the real sources of all our problems. It is through our anger and hatred that we transform people into enemies. We generally assume that anger arises when we encounter a disagreeable person, but actually it is the anger already within us that transforms the person we meet into our imagined foe. Someone controlled by their anger lives within a paranoid view of the world, surrounded by enemies of his or her own creation. The false belief that everyone hates him can become so overwhelming that he might even go insane, the victim of his own delusion
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Dealing with Anger
Since it is impossible to fulfil all our desires or to stop unwanted things happening to us, we need to find a different way of relating to frustrated desires and unwanted occurrences. We need to learn patient acceptance. Patience is a mind that is able to accept, fully and happily, whatever occurs. It is much more than just gritting our teeth and putting up with things. Being patient means to welcome wholeheartedly whatever arises, having given up the idea that things should be other than what they are. It is always possible to be patient; there is no situation so bad that it cannot be accepted patiently, with an open, accommodating, and peaceful heart. When patience is present in our mind it is impossible for unhappy thoughts to gain a foothold. There are many examples of people who have managed to practise patience even in the most extreme circumstances, such as under torture or in the final ravages of cancer. Although their body was ruined beyond repair, deep down their mind remained at peace. By learning to accept the small difficulties and hardships that arise every day in the course of our lives, gradually our capacity for patient acceptance will increase and we shall come to know for ourselves the freedom and joy that true patience brings
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Anger Management If we practise the patience of voluntarily accepting suffering, we can
maintain a peaceful mind even when experiencing suffering and pain. If we maintain this peaceful and positive state of mind through the force of mindfulness, unhappy minds will have no opportunity to arise. On the other hand, if we allow ourselves to dwell on unhappy thoughts there will be no way for us to prevent anger from arising. For this reason 'Always rely upon a happy mind alone.' If there is a way to remedy an unpleasant, difficult situation, what point is there in being unhappy? On the other hand, if it is completely impossible to remedy the situation or to fulfil our wishes, there is also no reason to get upset, for how will our becoming unhappy help? This line of reasoning is very useful, for we can apply it to any situation. Anger Management
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Patient acceptance does not necessarily mean that we do not take practical steps to improve our situation. If it is possible to remedy the situation, then of course we should; but to do this we do not need to become unhappy and impatient. For example, when we have a headache there is no contradiction between practising patience and taking a tablet, but until the tablet takes effect we need to accept whatever discomfort we feel with a calm and patient mind. If instead of accepting our present pain we become unhappy and fight against it, we shall just become tense, and as a result it will take longer to get rid of our headache. For as long as we cannot avoid unpleasant, difficult situations and a certain amount of physical discomfort, but by training our mind to look at frustrating situations in a more realistic manner, we can free ourselves from a lot of unnecessary mental suffering. Instead of reacting blindly through the force of emotional habit, we should examine whether it is helpful or realistic to become unhappy in such situations. We do not need to become unhappy just because things do not go our way. Although until now this has indeed been our reaction to difficulties, once we recognize that it does not work we are free to respond in a more realistic and constructive way.
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Benefits of Patience In reality most of our emotional problems are nothing more than a
failure to accept things as they are - in which case it is patient acceptance, rather than attempting to change externals, that is the solution. For example, many of our relationship problems arise because we do not accept our partner as he or she is. In these cases the solution is not to change our partner into what we would like him to be, but to accept him fully as he is. There are many levels of acceptance. Perhaps we already try to tolerate our partner's idiosyncrasies, refrain from criticizing him or her, and go along with his wishes most of the time; but have we in the depths of our heart given up judging him? Are we completely free from resentment and blaming? Is there not still a subtle thought that he ought to be different from the way he is? True patience involves letting go of all these thoughts. Anger Management
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Once we fully accept other people as they are without the slightest
judgement or reservation - as all the enlightened beings accept us then there is no basis for problems in our relations with others. Problems do not exist outside our mind, so when we stop seeing other people as problems they stop being problems. The person who is a problem to a non-accepting mind does not exist in the calm, clear space of patient acceptance. Patient acceptance not only helps us, it also helps those with whom we are patient. Being accepted feels very different to being judged. When someone feels judged they automatically become tight and defensive, but when they feel accepted they can relax, and this allows their good qualities to come to the surface. Patience always solves our inner problems, but often it solves problems between people as well.
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Anger Management Tips
There are three kinds of situation in which we need to learn to be patient: 1. 2. 3.
when we are experiencing suffering, hardship, or disappointment when we are practising Dharma when we are harmed or criticized by others
Correspondingly, there are three types of patience: 1. 2. 3.
the patience of voluntarily accepting suffering, the patience of definitely thinking about Dharma the patience of not retaliating
These three types of patience do not come easily, and may seem somewhat strange when we first read about them. However, once we understand them clearly and put them into practice sincerely and skillfully, they will liberate our mind from one of its most obsessive delusions and bring great peace and joy. It is therefore worthwhile to persevere in these practices even if initially they may seem unusual or even unnatural.
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Strategies To Keep Anger At Bay Relaxation Simple relaxation tools, such as deep breathing and relaxing imagery, can help
calm down angry feelings. There are books and courses that can teach you relaxation techniques, and once you learn the techniques, you can call upon them in any situation. If you are involved in a relationship where both partners are hot-tempered, it might be a good idea for both of you to learn these techniques. Some simple steps you can try:
Breathe deeply, from your diaphragm; breathing from your chest won't relax you. Picture your breath coming up from your "gut." Slowly repeat a calm word or phrase such as "relax," "take it easy." Repeat it to yourself while breathing deeply. Use imagery; visualize a relaxing experience, from either your memory or your imagination. Nonstrenuous, slow yoga-like exercises can relax your muscles and make you feel much calmer.
Practice these techniques daily. Learn to use them automatically when you're in a tense situation.
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Cognitive Restructuring Simply put, this means changing the way you think. Angry people tend to curse, swear, or speak in highly colorful terms that
reflect their inner thoughts. When you're angry, your thinking can get very exaggerated and overly dramatic. Try replacing these thoughts with more rational ones. For instance, instead of telling yourself, "oh, it's awful, it's terrible, everything's ruined," tell yourself, "it's frustrating, and it's understandable that I'm upset about it, but it's not the end of the world and getting angry is not going to fix it anyhow." Be careful of words like "never" or "always" when talking about yourself or someone else. "This machine never works," or "you're always forgetting things" are not just inaccurate, they also serve to make you feel that your anger is justified and that there's no way to solve the problem. They also alienate and humiliate people who might otherwise be willing to work with you on a solution.
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Remind yourself that getting angry is not going to fix anything, that it won't make you feel better (and may actually make you feel worse). Logic defeats anger, because anger, even when it's justified, can quickly become irrational. So use cold hard logic on yourself. Remind yourself that the world is "not out to get you," you're just experiencing some of the rough spots of daily life. Do this each time you feel anger getting the best of you, and it'll help you get a more balanced perspective. Angry people tend to demand things: fairness, appreciation, agreement, willingness to do things their way. Everyone wants these things, and we are all hurt and disappointed when we don't get them, but angry people demand them, and when their demands aren't met, their disappointment becomes anger. As part of their cognitive restructuring, angry people need to become aware of their demanding nature and translate their expectations into desires. In other words, saying, "I would like" something is healthier than saying, "I demand" or "I must have" something. When you're unable to get what you want, you will experience the normal reactions—frustration, disappointment, hurt—but not anger. Some angry people use this anger as a way to avoid feeling hurt, but that doesn't mean the hurt goes away.
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Problem Solving Sometimes, our anger and frustration are caused by very real and
inescapable problems in our lives. Not all anger is misplaced, and often it's a healthy, natural response to these difficulties. There is also a cultural belief that every problem has a solution, and it adds to our frustration to find out that this isn't always the case. The best attitude to bring to such a situation, then, is not to focus on finding the solution, but rather on how you handle and face the problem. Make a plan, and check your progress along the way. Resolve to give it your best, but also not to punish yourself if an answer doesn't come right away. If you can approach it with your best intentions and efforts and make a serious attempt to face it head-on, you will be less likely to lose patience and fall into all-or-nothing thinking, even if the problem does not get solved right away. Anger Management
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Better Communication
Angry people tend to jump to—and act on—conclusions, and some of those conclusions can be very inaccurate. The first thing to do if you're in a heated discussion is slow down and think through your responses. Don't say the first thing that comes into your head, but slow down and think carefully about what you want to say. At the same time, listen carefully to what the other person is saying and take your time before answering. Listen, too, to what is underlying the anger. For instance, you like a certain amount of freedom and personal space, and your "significant other" wants more connection and closeness. If he or she starts complaining about your activities, don't retaliate by painting your partner as a jailer, a warden, or an albatross around your neck. It's natural to get defensive when you're criticized, but don't fight back. Instead, listen to what's underlying the words: the message that this person might feel neglected and unloved. It may take a lot of patient questioning on your part, and it may require some breathing space, but don't let your anger—or a partner's—let a discussion spin out of control. Keeping your cool can keep the situation from becoming a disastrous one.
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Using Humor "Silly humor" can help defuse rage in a number of ways. For one thing, it can help you get a more balanced perspective. When you get angry and call someone a name or refer to them in some
imaginative phrase, stop and picture what that word would literally look like. If you're at work and you think of a coworker as a "dirtbag" or a "single-cell life form," for example, picture a large bag full of dirt (or an amoeba) sitting at your colleague's desk, talking on the phone, going to meetings. Do this whenever a name comes into your head about another person. If you can, draw a picture of what the actual thing might look like. This will take a lot of the edge off your fury; and humor can always be relied on to help unknot a tense situation.
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The underlying message of highly angry people, Dr. Deffenbacher says, is "things ought to go my way!" Angry people tend to feel that they are morally right, that any blocking or changing of their plans is an unbearable indignity and that they should NOT have to suffer this way. Maybe other people do, but not them! When you feel that urge, he suggests, picture yourself as a god or goddess, a supreme ruler, who owns the streets and stores and office space, striding alone and having your way in all situations while others defer to you. The more detail you can get into your imaginary scenes, the more chances you have to realize that maybe you are being unreasonable; you'll also realize how unimportant the things you're angry about really are. There are two cautions in using humor. First, don't try to just "laugh off" your problems; rather, use humor to help yourself face them more constructively. Second, don't give in to harsh, sarcastic humor; that's just another form of unhealthy anger expression. What these techniques have in common is a refusal to take yourself too seriously. Anger is a serious emotion, but it's often accompanied by ideas that, if examined, can make you laugh.
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Changing Your Environment Sometimes it's our immediate surroundings that give us
cause for irritation and fury. Problems and responsibilities can weigh on you and make you feel angry at the "trap" you seem to have fallen into and all the people and things that form that trap. Give yourself a break. Make sure you have some "personal time" scheduled for times of the day that you know are particularly stressful. One example is the working mother who has a standing rule that when she comes home from work, for the first 15 minutes "nobody talks to Mom unless the house is on fire." After this brief quiet time, she feels better prepared to handle demands from her kids without blowing up at them. Anger Management
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Some Other Tips for Easing Up on Yourself Timing: If you and your spouse tend to fight when you discuss things
at night—perhaps you're tired, or distracted, or maybe it's just habit— try changing the times when you talk about important matters so these talks don't turn into arguments. Avoidance: If your child's chaotic room makes you furious every time you walk by it, shut the door. Don't make yourself look at what infuriates you. Don't say, "well, my child should clean up the room so I won't have to be angry!" That's not the point. The point is to keep yourself calm. Finding alternatives: If your daily commute through traffic leaves you in a state of rage and frustration, give yourself a project—learn or map out a different route, one that's less congested or more scenic. Or find another alternative, such as a bus or commuter train.
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Do You Need Counseling? If you feel that your anger is really out of control, if it is having an
impact on your relationships and on important parts of your life, you might consider counseling to learn how to handle it better. A psychologist or other licensed mental health professional can work with you in developing a range of techniques for changing your thinking and your behavior. When you talk to a prospective therapist, tell her or him that you have problems with anger that you want to work on, and ask about his or her approach to anger management. Make sure this isn't only a course of action designed to "put you in touch with your feelings and express them"—that may be precisely what your problem is. With counseling, psychologists say, a highly angry person can move closer to a middle range of anger in about 8 to 10 weeks, depending on the circumstances and the techniques used. Anger Management
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What About Assertiveness Training? It's true that angry people need to learn to become assertive (rather than
aggressive), but most books and courses on developing assertiveness are aimed at people who don't feel enough anger. These people are more passive and acquiescent than the average person; they tend to let others walk all over them. That isn't something that most angry people do. Still, these books can contain some useful tactics to use in frustrating situations. Remember, you can't eliminate anger—and it wouldn't be a good idea if you could. In spite of all your efforts, things will happen that will cause you anger; and sometimes it will be justifiable anger. Life will be filled with frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others. You can't change that; but you can change the way you let such events affect you. Controlling your angry responses can keep them from making you even more unhappy in the long run.
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Learn and Use Self Soothing Techniques to Maximize Becoming the Best You can Be
Feelings are energies that can be moved and transformed. Ignoring or stuffing feelings is “out!” What is “in” is to learn to self soothe so that you, not your excessive emotions, are in charge! Self soothing techniques are things you do to calm yourself when you are stressed or caught in unruly emotions. The new buzz word phase in Psychology is to learn to “modulate the emotions!” Don’t be at the mercy of out-of-control feelings—learn to calm them down. These exercises help you learn several things to do to relax yourself and let go of your bad feelings. But you have to do what is suggested, not just watch the videos. Just do it! Remember, you did not learn your multiplication tables or to swim without practice. Practice makes perfect when dealing with difficult emotions. You need many different kinds of tools and techniques to be the best person you can be in difficult circumstances. Practice each technique until it becomes automatic and your life will be much smoother.
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Big feelings! Little feelings! People differ in their emotional reactions because they have different types of central nervous systems and hormonal reactions to events. Some people get over negative feelings faster than others. Sensitive people have quicker and stronger emotional reactions than others. Stronger emotions take longer to recover from. If you come from a family where you do not feel supported or if you have had lots of trauma, it might be harder for you to calm your emotions. If you are more sensitive, you can learn ways to calm your feelings and deal with your sensitivity. Many of these techniques work because they apply a psychological concept called Reciprocal Inhibition which means that two emotions cannot occupy the same space at the same time. You cannot feel hatred and happy at the same time. When you impose a positive emotion over a negative one, one must fall out and it usually is the negative one! Relaxation and feelings of love and good self esteem help break into fear and anxiety. Relaxation rules! Positive experiences turn on the pleasure centers in the brain and reduce areas that sense pain. You can learn to work your emotions to bring about changes in your brain! The brain is elastic and can be programmed with stress management techniques. When you are angry and add feelings of being empowered and joyful, fear, depression or anger can lessen. What a good deal—tune into the positive emotions to help counteract the negative ones!
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Each video has one or more of the most potent techniques available today that can help you deal with your unruly emotions. Learn them all and use the ones that you like best. If one technique doesn’t help for your particular problem of the moment, go to another video and try that technique even if it’s presented with a different type problem. Or come back the next day and try the same technique again. Try them all. Keep trying them. Do something—don’t just be at the mercy of your emotions. I’ve decided not include two of the greatest techniques—Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and Rapid Eye Technology due to concerns that use of these techniques might trigger overwhelming memories. They are worth learning a bout because they are so powerful. Moving the eyes around in circles, back and forth and up and down while thinking about your problem can create a relaxed state. Rapid eye movement can help you bring up and process issues and emotions that lie underneath your problem. Rapid Eye Movement helps the right side and the left side of your brain communicates with each other and helps to break into trauma. You’ll have to seek help learning these three important techniques with a trained professional.
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Big problems may not be helped by these exercises. If your strong feelings do not go away after you learn and USE these techniques, then it is time for you to get someone trained to help you deal with your problems. When things in your life do not make sense, get a counselor or therapist who can help you sort it out. Life is too short to be confused, anxious, depressed or angry much of the time. You deserve to have a happy life and if you can’t figure how to be happy on your own, get help! Don’t be a slave to your overwhelming feelings. You have the potential for change due to the elastic nature of your brain which changes and grows when you learn new things. You can buffer yourself against poor self esteem by taking charge of how you react to what happens to you. Learn the different ways of working with your unhappy emotions. Become a collector of tools and techniques to calm yourself! It may take a lot of practicing these different techniques for you to recover from the strong grip of your bad feelings. You do have to do them—don’t just watch the videos! Do the exercises several times until you learn many different approaches to understand and release your bad feelings.
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What Works? Ways to Work with Your Uncomfortable
Emotions
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Acupressure Acupressure by tapping or rubbing your body is a form of
self massage that feels good. Tapping briskly on your body when you are upset gets your energy moving and helps you relax. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) combines acupressure with counteracting negative thoughts, owning the problem and forgiving yourself. EFT helps calm down the fight or flight response by balancing your brain hemispheres. This technique helps you release the strong emotions and negative thoughts and helps you relax all at the same time. Anger Management
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Deep Breathing When you are scared, you might contract your body and hold your
breath to try to squish the feelings in order to keep from feeling bad. Pulling your body in tight and stopping your breath keeps you from getting good oxygen to deal with whatever upsets you. Whenever you are scared or angry, use your breath to make yourself strong and powerful! Your breath is your best friend! It will always be with you when you want to calm yourself down. Make your breath go down deep into your body as far as you can. Deep breathing which goes down past the rib cage into the belly helps you feel relaxed as it bring good, life-affirming oxygen into your body. Breathing helps calm the fight, flight or freeze reaction that you can go into when stressed. Deep breathing helps bring you back where you can think more clearly and reason! Anger Management
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Amplification of the Feeling Too often we run away from bad feelings and they pile up
inside. An antidote for the stuck feelings inside is to do the opposite action. So instead of stuffing feelings down, address them and exaggerate them instead! Amplification of the feeling helps exhaust it. When you push yourself to the limit one way, the emotions want to swing the other way. Making the feelings bigger and bigger can sometimes help to use them up and wear them out. When they get so big and uncomfortable, you can say “That’s enough,” and let them go. Anger Management
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Imagery
.Your powerful imagination can make pictures in your mind to release unhappy experiences and bad feelings. Your subconscious mind does not know the difference between real and pretend. Sometimes you can trick it by using your imagination to make pictures in your mind to change the feeling. You can use symbols and rituals to release your anger, fear, sadness and other uncomfortable feelings. Make up a story of somewhere safe where you want to send a bad feeling—to the moon, to the center of the earth or the North Pole. See the feelings coming out of you and rushing off to that safe place. You can picture cooling water being poured on your anger to put it out or someone loving coming to comfort you when you are sad. Use your imagination! Pull Outs add action to your imagination to help “throw away” a feeling. With Pull Outs, you find your feeling in your body and then use your hands while you pretend that you are pulling it out to throw away. Let your powerful imagination and the wonder of your mind decide what to do with your scary and unhappy feelings.
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Mindfulness Mindfulness is keeping your attention on what is happening in the moment. You just watch how you inhale and exhale and observe the thoughts as they come and go. You calm yourself by focusing on your breath until the negative emotion leaves. Just watch the events instead of reacting to them. Mindfulness is calming as your mind shifts the focus to just being the neutral observer of the events. Meditation can help you learn to be more mindful. Stop the knee-jerk reactions and keep your mind in neutral! Like the popular song says, “Just breathe!” Positive Psychology Positive Psychology researches how happy, successful people work their life. The research on brain function shows that certain areas of the left side of the brain activate and light up when you engage in positive thinking. The brain chemicals which create a sense of well being are turned on when you keep your mind in a positive mind set. There are many books written on happiness to show you how to get the most out of your life. Get in the habit of becoming aware when you are thinking negative thoughts and learn ways to shift those thoughts.
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Resilience Some children from troubled homes become successful in life. What makes the successful children different from their brothers and sisters who continue the family patterns of chaos and addictions? Resiliency is the ability to bounce back from life’s problems. There is research showing that one third of children from dysfunctional homes can break out of the negative family patterns and make a success out of their lives. The research shows that achievement seeking and finding positive people for support helps children take on the values and work ethics of success. Self Talk Talking to yourself to calm down when you are upset is a form of Cognitive Behavioral Psychology. The Super Kid Words and Helper Words given in these exercises help you break into negative thoughts and errors in thinking. Self Talk statements give you a new way of looking at things. You can learn to be your own cheerleader and coach when you tell yourself positive words about how you want to be. See yourself becoming how you want to be. Chill Out Helper words show you how to talk yourself down when you are upset. Remind yourself to breathe and keep your cool. Talk to yourself to become strong and resilient.
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Talk Your Feelings Out Two heads can be better than one when figuring tricky things out. Talking about your feelings with a safe person who can help you get a new perspective. A safe person is someone who can listen to you and take your feelings seriously and will keep your private information confidential. They can help you problem solve and figure out what to do with your problem. If talking to your friends or parents doesn’t help solve your problems, then you may need to get some one trained in therapy to help you work things out. Thought Stoppage Telling yourself to stop thinking about negative thoughts is called Thought Stoppage. Anything you do to interrupt your thoughts and get back to your more positive mind can help change your mood. Yelling “Stop!” or “Negative thought get out of here!” puts you in charge of your mind. Distract yourself and tell yourself, “I’m not going there” gives you more control of your mind. Adding a gesture such as shrugging your shoulders or pretending to push the thought away gives added emphasis. Remember to stop giving negative thoughts free rent in your brain!
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Understand the Layers of Emotions Sometimes feelings stack up and hide underneath each other, making it hard to understand what is going on. You can break a big feeling down like anger to see what other emotions might be lurking underneath. There is no set pattern. Hurt and sadness might be hiding under anger. Anger might be hiding under fear and confusion. Find the emotion that is on top and work on releasing it, then ask yourself what other feelings you might have. As you address each separate emotion, the whole stack of feelings might start to shift. Anger Management
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Figure Out how You Cope with Threat Under your deepest feeling you might find a decision of how you decided to keep yourself safe after a highly upsetting experience. Bad things happen in life. The important thing is not always what happens to you, but how you deal with it. Learning to deal with your overwhelming feelings is part of how you cope in life. Now that you are learning about the correct use of your emotions, you can learn better ways of dealing with them. When you were small, you probably tried to figure out how to keep yourself safe and keep the bad experience from happening again. You learned how to cope with threat to keep safe. You might have decided to stop risking or stop speaking out. Or you might have decided to get angry to get others to back off or to get your way. Or you may have tried to shrink down inside yourself and stop breathing to try to be invisible and safe. Or you may have learned to give up when things get tough. The type of coping you figured out as a child may have helped you survive then, but now that you are older, you can learn better ways of taking care of yourself. Staying present in the moment, calming down your wildly swinging emotions and being assertive while you figure out what to do are better strategies than collapsing in fear, not speaking out or exploding in anger.
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Write about Your Feelings Writing about what happened that upset you and your feelings helps you get them out of your head and down on paper or on your computer. The research shows that writing about their feelings and their problems helps people feel better. Writing about the day’s events and the things that upset you is called Journaling. Consider getting a special book or diary so that you can write about the things that make you feel uncomfortable or upset. Or open file on your computer and disguise the name so that you can write about your feelings in private. It’s a Tough World Out There! Today’s life is so stressful. Gather all the tools you can to help you deal with the daily grind that faces you. Learn all these approaches and use them daily as you go through life. The “buzz” word today is learn to modulate your emotions—smooth them out and cope with them. Emotional Intelligence is in your reach if you decide to study it and practice it! As you continue to go through life that you learn and use these ideas and many new ones to deal with your emotions in constructive ways.
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Disclaimer
Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy and completeness of the information, it is understood that there is no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of such information and assumes no liability for any damages or loss suffered as a result of any inaccuracy or incompleteness therein. These explanations are intended to provide the entrants to the subject with a basic understanding of as many technical terms. These explanations are not regulations or rules with the force of law. As difficult or detailed questions arise, the participant should seek clarification from their manager or supervisor, rather than attempting to derive precise guidance from these general explanations.
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We all know what anger is, and we've all felt it: whether as
a fleeting annoyance or as full-fledged rage. Anger is a completely normal, usually healthy, human emotion. But when it gets out of control and turns destructive, it can lead to problems at work, in your personal relationships, and in the overall quality of your life. And it can make you feel as though you're at the mercy of an unpredictable and powerful emotion.
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What is Anger?
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The Nature of Anger Anger is "an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation
to intense fury and rage," according to Charles Spielberger, PhD, a psychologist who specializes in the study of anger. Like other emotions, it is accompanied by physiological and biological changes; when you get angry, your heart rate and blood pressure go up, as do the levels of your energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Anger can be caused by both external and internal events. You could be angry at a specific person (Such as a coworker or supervisor) or event (a traffic jam, a canceled flight), or your anger could be caused by worrying or brooding about your personal problems. Memories of traumatic or enraging events can also trigger angry feelings. Anger Management
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Expressing Anger The instinctive, natural way to express anger is to respond aggressively. Anger
is a natural, adaptive response to threats; it inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and to defend ourselves when we are attacked. A certain amount of anger, therefore, is necessary to our survival. On the other hand, we can't physically lash out at every person or object that irritates or annoys us; laws, social norms, and common sense place limits on how far our anger can take us. People use a variety of both conscious and unconscious processes to deal with their angry feelings. The three main approaches are expressing, suppressing, and calming. Expressing your angry feelings in an assertive—not aggressive—manner is the healthiest way to express anger. To do this, you have to learn how to make clear what your needs are, and how to get them met, without hurting others. Being assertive doesn't mean being pushy or demanding; it means being respectful of yourself and others.
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Anger can be suppressed, and then converted or redirected. This happens when you hold in your anger, stop thinking about it, and focus
on something positive. The aim is to inhibit or suppress your anger and convert it into more constructive behavior. The danger in this type of response is that if it isn't allowed outward expression, your anger can turn inward—on yourself. Anger turned inward may cause hypertension, high blood pressure, or depression. Unexpressed anger can create other problems. It can lead to pathological expressions of anger, such as passive-aggressive behavior (getting back at people indirectly, without telling them why, rather than confronting them head-on) or a personality that seems perpetually cynical and hostile. People who are constantly putting others down, criticizing everything, and making cynical comments haven't learned how to constructively express their anger. Not surprisingly, they aren't likely to have many successful relationships.
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Finally, you can calm down inside. This means not just controlling your outward
behavior, but also controlling your internal responses, taking steps to lower your heart rate, calm yourself down, and let the feelings subside. As Dr. Spielberger notes, "when none of these three techniques work, that's when someone—or something—is going to get hurt."
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Anger Management The goal of anger management is to reduce both
your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can't get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions.
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Are You Too Angry? There are psychological tests that measure the
intensity of angry feelings, how prone to anger you are, and how well you handle it. But chances are good that if you do have a problem with anger, you already know it. If you find yourself acting in ways that seem out of control and frightening, you might need help finding better ways to deal with this emotion.
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Why Are Some People More Angry Than Others? According to Jerry Deffenbacher, PhD, a psychologist who specializes
in anger management, some people really are more "hotheaded" than others are; they get angry more easily and more intensely than the average person does. There are also those who don't show their anger in loud spectacular ways but are chronically irritable and grumpy. Easily angered people don't always curse and throw things; sometimes they withdraw socially, sulk, or get physically ill. People who are easily angered generally have what some psychologists call a low tolerance for frustration, meaning simply that they feel that they should not have to be subjected to frustration, inconvenience, or annoyance. They can't take things in stride, and they're particularly infuriated if the situation seems somehow unjust: for example, being corrected for a minor mistake. Anger Management
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What makes these people this way? A number of things. One cause may be genetic or physiological: There is evidence that some children are born irritable, touchy, and easily angered, and that these signs are present from a very early age. Another may be sociocultural. Anger is often regarded as negative; we're taught that it's all right to express anxiety, depression, or other emotions but not to express anger. As a result, we don't learn how to handle it or channel it constructively. Research has also found that family background plays a role. Typically, people who are easily angered come from families that are disruptive, chaotic, and not skilled at emotional communications.
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Is It Good To "Let it All Hang Out?" Psychologists now say that this is a dangerous myth. Some people use this theory as a license to hurt others. Research has found that "letting it rip" with anger actually
escalates anger and aggression and does nothing to help you (or the person you're angry with) resolve the situation. It's best to find out what it is that triggers your anger, and then to develop strategies to keep those triggers from tipping you over the edge.
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Anger Management Techniques Anger is one of the most common and destructive
delusions, and it afflicts our mind almost every day. To solve the problem of anger we first need to recognize the anger within our mind, acknowledge how it harms both ourselves and others, and appreciate the benefits of being patient in the face of difficulties. We then need to apply practical methods in our daily life to reduce our anger and finally to prevent it from arising at all. Anger is a deluded mind that focuses on an animate or inanimate object, feels it to be unattractive, exaggerates its bad qualities, and wishes to harm it. Anger Management
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For example, when we are angry with our partner, at that moment he
or she appears to us as unattractive or unpleasant. We then exaggerate his bad qualities by focusing only on those aspects that irritate us and ignoring all his good qualities and kindness, until we have built up a mental image of an intrinsically faulty person. We then wish to harm him in some way, probably by criticizing or disparaging him. Because it is based on an exaggeration, anger is an unrealistic mind; the intrinsically faulty person or thing that it focuses on does not in fact exist. Moreover, as we shall see, anger is also an extremely destructive mind that serves no useful purpose whatsoever. Having understood the nature and disadvantages of anger, we then need to watch our mind carefully at all times in order to recognize it whenever it begins to arise. Anger Management
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The Faults of Anger
There is nothing more destructive than anger. It destroys our peace and happiness in this life, and impels us to engage in negative actions that lead to untold suffering in future lives. It blocks our spiritual progress and prevents us from accomplishing any spiritual goals we have set ourselves - from merely improving our mind, up to full enlightenment. The opponent to anger is patient acceptance, and if we are seriously interested in progressing along the spiritual path there is no practice more important than this. Anger is by nature a painful state of mind. Whenever we develop anger, our inner peace immediately disappears and even our body becomes tense and uncomfortable. We are so restless that we find it nearly impossible to fall asleep, and whatever sleep we do manage to get is fitful and unrefreshing. It is impossible to enjoy ourself when we are angry, and even the food we eat seems unpalatable. Anger transforms even a normally attractive person into an ugly red-faced demon. We grow more and more miserable, and, no matter how hard we try, we cannot control our emotions.
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One of the most harmful effects of anger is that it robs us of our reason and
good sense. Wishing to retaliate against those whom we think have harmed us, we expose ourselves to great personal danger merely to exact petty revenge. To get our own back for perceived injustices or slights, we are prepared to jeopardize our job, our relationships, and even the well-being of our family and children. When we are angry we lose all freedom of choice, driven here and there by an uncontrollable rage. Sometimes this blind rage is even directed at our loved ones and benefactors. In a fit of anger, forgetting the immeasurable kindness we have received from our friends, family, or Spiritual Teachers, we might strike out against and even kill the ones we hold most dear. It is no wonder that an habitually angry person is soon avoided by all who know him. This unfortunate victim of his own temper is the despair of those who formerly loved him, and eventually finds himself abandoned by everyone.
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Identifying Anger It is very important to identify the actual cause of whatever
unhappiness we feel. If we are forever blaming our difficulties on others, this is a sure sign that there are still many problems and faults within our own mind. If we were truly peaceful inside and had our mind under control, difficult people or circumstances would not be able to disturb this peace, and so we would feel no compulsion to blame anyone or regard them as our enemy. To someone who has subdued his or her mind and eradicated the last trace of anger, all beings are friends. With his mind dwelling in patience, he would remain calm and untroubled, and his love and respect for his assailant would be undiminished. Such is the power of a well-controlled mind. Therefore, if we really want to be rid of all enemies, all we need to do is uproot our own anger. Anger Management
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If we are able to recognize a negative train of thought before it
develops into full-blown anger, it is not too hard to control. If we can do this, there is no danger of our anger being 'bottled up' and turning into resentment. Controlling anger and repressing anger are two very different things. Repression occurs when anger has developed fully in our mind but we fail to acknowledge its presence. We pretend to ourselves and to others that we are not angry - we control the outward expression of anger but not the anger itself. This is very dangerous because the anger continues to seethe below the surface of our mind, gathering in strength until one day it inevitably explodes.
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On the other hand, when we control anger we see exactly
what is going on in our mind. We acknowledge honestly the angry stirrings in our mind for what they are, realize that allowing them to grow will only result in suffering, and then make a free and conscious decision to respond more constructively. If we do this skilfully, anger does not get a chance to develop properly, and so there is nothing to repress. Once we learn to control and overcome our anger in this way, we shall always find happiness, both in this life and in our future lives. Those who truly wish to be happy, therefore, should make the effort to free their minds from the poison of anger. Anger Management
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Why we get Angry Anger is a response to feelings of unhappiness, which in turn arise whenever
we meet with unpleasant circumstances. Whenever we are prevented from fulfilling our wishes, or forced into a situation we dislike - in short, whenever we have to put up with something we would rather avoid - our uncontrolled mind reacts by immediately feeling unhappy. This uncomfortable feeling can easily turn into anger, and we become even more disturbed than before. The other main reason we become unhappy and angry is because we are faced with a situation we do not want or like. Every day we encounter hundreds of situations we do not like, from stubbing our toe or having a disagreement with our partner, to discovering that our house has burnt down or that we have cancer; and our normal reaction to all of these occurrences is to become unhappy and angry. However, try as we might, we cannot prevent unpleasant things happening to us. We cannot promise that for the rest of the day nothing bad will happen to us; we cannot even promise that we shall be alive to see the end of the day.
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Anger & Relationships Anger is particularly destructive in relationships. When we live in close contact with someone, our personalities,
priorities, interests, and ways of doing things frequently clash. Since we spend so much time together, and since we know the other person's shortcomings so well, it is very easy for us to become critical and short-tempered with our partner and to blame him or her for making our life uncomfortable. Unless we make a continuous effort to deal with this anger as it arises, our relationship will suffer. A couple may genuinely love one another, but if they frequently get angry with each other the times when they are happy together will become fewer and further between. Eventually there will come a point when before they have recovered from one row the next has already begun. Like a flower choked by weeds, love cannot survive in such circumstances. Anger Management
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In a close relationship, opportunities to get angry arise many times a day, so to prevent the build-up of bad feelings we need to deal with anger as soon as it begins to arise in our mind. We clear away the dishes after every meal rather than waiting until the end of the month, because we do not want to live in a dirty house nor be faced with a huge, unpleasant job. In the same way, we need to make the effort to clear away the mess in our mind as soon as it appears, for if we allow it to accumulate it will become more and more difficult to deal with, and will endanger our relationship. We should remember that every opportunity to develop anger is also an opportunity to develop patience. A relationship in which there is a lot of friction and conflict of interests is also an unrivalled opportunity to erode away our self-cherishing and self-grasping, which are the real sources of all our problems. It is through our anger and hatred that we transform people into enemies. We generally assume that anger arises when we encounter a disagreeable person, but actually it is the anger already within us that transforms the person we meet into our imagined foe. Someone controlled by their anger lives within a paranoid view of the world, surrounded by enemies of his or her own creation. The false belief that everyone hates him can become so overwhelming that he might even go insane, the victim of his own delusion
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Dealing with Anger
Since it is impossible to fulfil all our desires or to stop unwanted things happening to us, we need to find a different way of relating to frustrated desires and unwanted occurrences. We need to learn patient acceptance. Patience is a mind that is able to accept, fully and happily, whatever occurs. It is much more than just gritting our teeth and putting up with things. Being patient means to welcome wholeheartedly whatever arises, having given up the idea that things should be other than what they are. It is always possible to be patient; there is no situation so bad that it cannot be accepted patiently, with an open, accommodating, and peaceful heart. When patience is present in our mind it is impossible for unhappy thoughts to gain a foothold. There are many examples of people who have managed to practise patience even in the most extreme circumstances, such as under torture or in the final ravages of cancer. Although their body was ruined beyond repair, deep down their mind remained at peace. By learning to accept the small difficulties and hardships that arise every day in the course of our lives, gradually our capacity for patient acceptance will increase and we shall come to know for ourselves the freedom and joy that true patience brings
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Anger Management If we practise the patience of voluntarily accepting suffering, we can
maintain a peaceful mind even when experiencing suffering and pain. If we maintain this peaceful and positive state of mind through the force of mindfulness, unhappy minds will have no opportunity to arise. On the other hand, if we allow ourselves to dwell on unhappy thoughts there will be no way for us to prevent anger from arising. For this reason 'Always rely upon a happy mind alone.' If there is a way to remedy an unpleasant, difficult situation, what point is there in being unhappy? On the other hand, if it is completely impossible to remedy the situation or to fulfil our wishes, there is also no reason to get upset, for how will our becoming unhappy help? This line of reasoning is very useful, for we can apply it to any situation. Anger Management
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Patient acceptance does not necessarily mean that we do not take practical steps to improve our situation. If it is possible to remedy the situation, then of course we should; but to do this we do not need to become unhappy and impatient. For example, when we have a headache there is no contradiction between practising patience and taking a tablet, but until the tablet takes effect we need to accept whatever discomfort we feel with a calm and patient mind. If instead of accepting our present pain we become unhappy and fight against it, we shall just become tense, and as a result it will take longer to get rid of our headache. For as long as we cannot avoid unpleasant, difficult situations and a certain amount of physical discomfort, but by training our mind to look at frustrating situations in a more realistic manner, we can free ourselves from a lot of unnecessary mental suffering. Instead of reacting blindly through the force of emotional habit, we should examine whether it is helpful or realistic to become unhappy in such situations. We do not need to become unhappy just because things do not go our way. Although until now this has indeed been our reaction to difficulties, once we recognize that it does not work we are free to respond in a more realistic and constructive way.
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Benefits of Patience In reality most of our emotional problems are nothing more than a
failure to accept things as they are - in which case it is patient acceptance, rather than attempting to change externals, that is the solution. For example, many of our relationship problems arise because we do not accept our partner as he or she is. In these cases the solution is not to change our partner into what we would like him to be, but to accept him fully as he is. There are many levels of acceptance. Perhaps we already try to tolerate our partner's idiosyncrasies, refrain from criticizing him or her, and go along with his wishes most of the time; but have we in the depths of our heart given up judging him? Are we completely free from resentment and blaming? Is there not still a subtle thought that he ought to be different from the way he is? True patience involves letting go of all these thoughts. Anger Management
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Once we fully accept other people as they are without the slightest
judgement or reservation - as all the enlightened beings accept us then there is no basis for problems in our relations with others. Problems do not exist outside our mind, so when we stop seeing other people as problems they stop being problems. The person who is a problem to a non-accepting mind does not exist in the calm, clear space of patient acceptance. Patient acceptance not only helps us, it also helps those with whom we are patient. Being accepted feels very different to being judged. When someone feels judged they automatically become tight and defensive, but when they feel accepted they can relax, and this allows their good qualities to come to the surface. Patience always solves our inner problems, but often it solves problems between people as well.
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Anger Management Tips
There are three kinds of situation in which we need to learn to be patient: 1. 2. 3.
when we are experiencing suffering, hardship, or disappointment when we are practising Dharma when we are harmed or criticized by others
Correspondingly, there are three types of patience: 1. 2. 3.
the patience of voluntarily accepting suffering, the patience of definitely thinking about Dharma the patience of not retaliating
These three types of patience do not come easily, and may seem somewhat strange when we first read about them. However, once we understand them clearly and put them into practice sincerely and skillfully, they will liberate our mind from one of its most obsessive delusions and bring great peace and joy. It is therefore worthwhile to persevere in these practices even if initially they may seem unusual or even unnatural.
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Strategies To Keep Anger At Bay Relaxation Simple relaxation tools, such as deep breathing and relaxing imagery, can help
calm down angry feelings. There are books and courses that can teach you relaxation techniques, and once you learn the techniques, you can call upon them in any situation. If you are involved in a relationship where both partners are hot-tempered, it might be a good idea for both of you to learn these techniques. Some simple steps you can try:
Breathe deeply, from your diaphragm; breathing from your chest won't relax you. Picture your breath coming up from your "gut." Slowly repeat a calm word or phrase such as "relax," "take it easy." Repeat it to yourself while breathing deeply. Use imagery; visualize a relaxing experience, from either your memory or your imagination. Nonstrenuous, slow yoga-like exercises can relax your muscles and make you feel much calmer.
Practice these techniques daily. Learn to use them automatically when you're in a tense situation.
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Cognitive Restructuring Simply put, this means changing the way you think. Angry people tend to curse, swear, or speak in highly colorful terms that
reflect their inner thoughts. When you're angry, your thinking can get very exaggerated and overly dramatic. Try replacing these thoughts with more rational ones. For instance, instead of telling yourself, "oh, it's awful, it's terrible, everything's ruined," tell yourself, "it's frustrating, and it's understandable that I'm upset about it, but it's not the end of the world and getting angry is not going to fix it anyhow." Be careful of words like "never" or "always" when talking about yourself or someone else. "This machine never works," or "you're always forgetting things" are not just inaccurate, they also serve to make you feel that your anger is justified and that there's no way to solve the problem. They also alienate and humiliate people who might otherwise be willing to work with you on a solution.
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Remind yourself that getting angry is not going to fix anything, that it won't make you feel better (and may actually make you feel worse). Logic defeats anger, because anger, even when it's justified, can quickly become irrational. So use cold hard logic on yourself. Remind yourself that the world is "not out to get you," you're just experiencing some of the rough spots of daily life. Do this each time you feel anger getting the best of you, and it'll help you get a more balanced perspective. Angry people tend to demand things: fairness, appreciation, agreement, willingness to do things their way. Everyone wants these things, and we are all hurt and disappointed when we don't get them, but angry people demand them, and when their demands aren't met, their disappointment becomes anger. As part of their cognitive restructuring, angry people need to become aware of their demanding nature and translate their expectations into desires. In other words, saying, "I would like" something is healthier than saying, "I demand" or "I must have" something. When you're unable to get what you want, you will experience the normal reactions—frustration, disappointment, hurt—but not anger. Some angry people use this anger as a way to avoid feeling hurt, but that doesn't mean the hurt goes away.
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Problem Solving Sometimes, our anger and frustration are caused by very real and
inescapable problems in our lives. Not all anger is misplaced, and often it's a healthy, natural response to these difficulties. There is also a cultural belief that every problem has a solution, and it adds to our frustration to find out that this isn't always the case. The best attitude to bring to such a situation, then, is not to focus on finding the solution, but rather on how you handle and face the problem. Make a plan, and check your progress along the way. Resolve to give it your best, but also not to punish yourself if an answer doesn't come right away. If you can approach it with your best intentions and efforts and make a serious attempt to face it head-on, you will be less likely to lose patience and fall into all-or-nothing thinking, even if the problem does not get solved right away. Anger Management
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Better Communication
Angry people tend to jump to—and act on—conclusions, and some of those conclusions can be very inaccurate. The first thing to do if you're in a heated discussion is slow down and think through your responses. Don't say the first thing that comes into your head, but slow down and think carefully about what you want to say. At the same time, listen carefully to what the other person is saying and take your time before answering. Listen, too, to what is underlying the anger. For instance, you like a certain amount of freedom and personal space, and your "significant other" wants more connection and closeness. If he or she starts complaining about your activities, don't retaliate by painting your partner as a jailer, a warden, or an albatross around your neck. It's natural to get defensive when you're criticized, but don't fight back. Instead, listen to what's underlying the words: the message that this person might feel neglected and unloved. It may take a lot of patient questioning on your part, and it may require some breathing space, but don't let your anger—or a partner's—let a discussion spin out of control. Keeping your cool can keep the situation from becoming a disastrous one.
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Using Humor "Silly humor" can help defuse rage in a number of ways. For one thing, it can help you get a more balanced perspective. When you get angry and call someone a name or refer to them in some
imaginative phrase, stop and picture what that word would literally look like. If you're at work and you think of a coworker as a "dirtbag" or a "single-cell life form," for example, picture a large bag full of dirt (or an amoeba) sitting at your colleague's desk, talking on the phone, going to meetings. Do this whenever a name comes into your head about another person. If you can, draw a picture of what the actual thing might look like. This will take a lot of the edge off your fury; and humor can always be relied on to help unknot a tense situation.
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The underlying message of highly angry people, Dr. Deffenbacher says, is "things ought to go my way!" Angry people tend to feel that they are morally right, that any blocking or changing of their plans is an unbearable indignity and that they should NOT have to suffer this way. Maybe other people do, but not them! When you feel that urge, he suggests, picture yourself as a god or goddess, a supreme ruler, who owns the streets and stores and office space, striding alone and having your way in all situations while others defer to you. The more detail you can get into your imaginary scenes, the more chances you have to realize that maybe you are being unreasonable; you'll also realize how unimportant the things you're angry about really are. There are two cautions in using humor. First, don't try to just "laugh off" your problems; rather, use humor to help yourself face them more constructively. Second, don't give in to harsh, sarcastic humor; that's just another form of unhealthy anger expression. What these techniques have in common is a refusal to take yourself too seriously. Anger is a serious emotion, but it's often accompanied by ideas that, if examined, can make you laugh.
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Changing Your Environment Sometimes it's our immediate surroundings that give us
cause for irritation and fury. Problems and responsibilities can weigh on you and make you feel angry at the "trap" you seem to have fallen into and all the people and things that form that trap. Give yourself a break. Make sure you have some "personal time" scheduled for times of the day that you know are particularly stressful. One example is the working mother who has a standing rule that when she comes home from work, for the first 15 minutes "nobody talks to Mom unless the house is on fire." After this brief quiet time, she feels better prepared to handle demands from her kids without blowing up at them. Anger Management
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Some Other Tips for Easing Up on Yourself Timing: If you and your spouse tend to fight when you discuss things
at night—perhaps you're tired, or distracted, or maybe it's just habit— try changing the times when you talk about important matters so these talks don't turn into arguments. Avoidance: If your child's chaotic room makes you furious every time you walk by it, shut the door. Don't make yourself look at what infuriates you. Don't say, "well, my child should clean up the room so I won't have to be angry!" That's not the point. The point is to keep yourself calm. Finding alternatives: If your daily commute through traffic leaves you in a state of rage and frustration, give yourself a project—learn or map out a different route, one that's less congested or more scenic. Or find another alternative, such as a bus or commuter train.
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Do You Need Counseling? If you feel that your anger is really out of control, if it is having an
impact on your relationships and on important parts of your life, you might consider counseling to learn how to handle it better. A psychologist or other licensed mental health professional can work with you in developing a range of techniques for changing your thinking and your behavior. When you talk to a prospective therapist, tell her or him that you have problems with anger that you want to work on, and ask about his or her approach to anger management. Make sure this isn't only a course of action designed to "put you in touch with your feelings and express them"—that may be precisely what your problem is. With counseling, psychologists say, a highly angry person can move closer to a middle range of anger in about 8 to 10 weeks, depending on the circumstances and the techniques used. Anger Management
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What About Assertiveness Training? It's true that angry people need to learn to become assertive (rather than
aggressive), but most books and courses on developing assertiveness are aimed at people who don't feel enough anger. These people are more passive and acquiescent than the average person; they tend to let others walk all over them. That isn't something that most angry people do. Still, these books can contain some useful tactics to use in frustrating situations. Remember, you can't eliminate anger—and it wouldn't be a good idea if you could. In spite of all your efforts, things will happen that will cause you anger; and sometimes it will be justifiable anger. Life will be filled with frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others. You can't change that; but you can change the way you let such events affect you. Controlling your angry responses can keep them from making you even more unhappy in the long run.
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Learn and Use Self Soothing Techniques to Maximize Becoming the Best You can Be
Feelings are energies that can be moved and transformed. Ignoring or stuffing feelings is “out!” What is “in” is to learn to self soothe so that you, not your excessive emotions, are in charge! Self soothing techniques are things you do to calm yourself when you are stressed or caught in unruly emotions. The new buzz word phase in Psychology is to learn to “modulate the emotions!” Don’t be at the mercy of out-of-control feelings—learn to calm them down. These exercises help you learn several things to do to relax yourself and let go of your bad feelings. But you have to do what is suggested, not just watch the videos. Just do it! Remember, you did not learn your multiplication tables or to swim without practice. Practice makes perfect when dealing with difficult emotions. You need many different kinds of tools and techniques to be the best person you can be in difficult circumstances. Practice each technique until it becomes automatic and your life will be much smoother.
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Big feelings! Little feelings! People differ in their emotional reactions because they have different types of central nervous systems and hormonal reactions to events. Some people get over negative feelings faster than others. Sensitive people have quicker and stronger emotional reactions than others. Stronger emotions take longer to recover from. If you come from a family where you do not feel supported or if you have had lots of trauma, it might be harder for you to calm your emotions. If you are more sensitive, you can learn ways to calm your feelings and deal with your sensitivity. Many of these techniques work because they apply a psychological concept called Reciprocal Inhibition which means that two emotions cannot occupy the same space at the same time. You cannot feel hatred and happy at the same time. When you impose a positive emotion over a negative one, one must fall out and it usually is the negative one! Relaxation and feelings of love and good self esteem help break into fear and anxiety. Relaxation rules! Positive experiences turn on the pleasure centers in the brain and reduce areas that sense pain. You can learn to work your emotions to bring about changes in your brain! The brain is elastic and can be programmed with stress management techniques. When you are angry and add feelings of being empowered and joyful, fear, depression or anger can lessen. What a good deal—tune into the positive emotions to help counteract the negative ones!
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Each video has one or more of the most potent techniques available today that can help you deal with your unruly emotions. Learn them all and use the ones that you like best. If one technique doesn’t help for your particular problem of the moment, go to another video and try that technique even if it’s presented with a different type problem. Or come back the next day and try the same technique again. Try them all. Keep trying them. Do something—don’t just be at the mercy of your emotions. I’ve decided not include two of the greatest techniques—Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and Rapid Eye Technology due to concerns that use of these techniques might trigger overwhelming memories. They are worth learning a bout because they are so powerful. Moving the eyes around in circles, back and forth and up and down while thinking about your problem can create a relaxed state. Rapid eye movement can help you bring up and process issues and emotions that lie underneath your problem. Rapid Eye Movement helps the right side and the left side of your brain communicates with each other and helps to break into trauma. You’ll have to seek help learning these three important techniques with a trained professional.
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Big problems may not be helped by these exercises. If your strong feelings do not go away after you learn and USE these techniques, then it is time for you to get someone trained to help you deal with your problems. When things in your life do not make sense, get a counselor or therapist who can help you sort it out. Life is too short to be confused, anxious, depressed or angry much of the time. You deserve to have a happy life and if you can’t figure how to be happy on your own, get help! Don’t be a slave to your overwhelming feelings. You have the potential for change due to the elastic nature of your brain which changes and grows when you learn new things. You can buffer yourself against poor self esteem by taking charge of how you react to what happens to you. Learn the different ways of working with your unhappy emotions. Become a collector of tools and techniques to calm yourself! It may take a lot of practicing these different techniques for you to recover from the strong grip of your bad feelings. You do have to do them—don’t just watch the videos! Do the exercises several times until you learn many different approaches to understand and release your bad feelings.
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What Works? Ways to Work with Your Uncomfortable
Emotions
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Acupressure Acupressure by tapping or rubbing your body is a form of
self massage that feels good. Tapping briskly on your body when you are upset gets your energy moving and helps you relax. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) combines acupressure with counteracting negative thoughts, owning the problem and forgiving yourself. EFT helps calm down the fight or flight response by balancing your brain hemispheres. This technique helps you release the strong emotions and negative thoughts and helps you relax all at the same time. Anger Management
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Deep Breathing When you are scared, you might contract your body and hold your
breath to try to squish the feelings in order to keep from feeling bad. Pulling your body in tight and stopping your breath keeps you from getting good oxygen to deal with whatever upsets you. Whenever you are scared or angry, use your breath to make yourself strong and powerful! Your breath is your best friend! It will always be with you when you want to calm yourself down. Make your breath go down deep into your body as far as you can. Deep breathing which goes down past the rib cage into the belly helps you feel relaxed as it bring good, life-affirming oxygen into your body. Breathing helps calm the fight, flight or freeze reaction that you can go into when stressed. Deep breathing helps bring you back where you can think more clearly and reason! Anger Management
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Amplification of the Feeling Too often we run away from bad feelings and they pile up
inside. An antidote for the stuck feelings inside is to do the opposite action. So instead of stuffing feelings down, address them and exaggerate them instead! Amplification of the feeling helps exhaust it. When you push yourself to the limit one way, the emotions want to swing the other way. Making the feelings bigger and bigger can sometimes help to use them up and wear them out. When they get so big and uncomfortable, you can say “That’s enough,” and let them go. Anger Management
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Imagery
.Your powerful imagination can make pictures in your mind to release unhappy experiences and bad feelings. Your subconscious mind does not know the difference between real and pretend. Sometimes you can trick it by using your imagination to make pictures in your mind to change the feeling. You can use symbols and rituals to release your anger, fear, sadness and other uncomfortable feelings. Make up a story of somewhere safe where you want to send a bad feeling—to the moon, to the center of the earth or the North Pole. See the feelings coming out of you and rushing off to that safe place. You can picture cooling water being poured on your anger to put it out or someone loving coming to comfort you when you are sad. Use your imagination! Pull Outs add action to your imagination to help “throw away” a feeling. With Pull Outs, you find your feeling in your body and then use your hands while you pretend that you are pulling it out to throw away. Let your powerful imagination and the wonder of your mind decide what to do with your scary and unhappy feelings.
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Mindfulness Mindfulness is keeping your attention on what is happening in the moment. You just watch how you inhale and exhale and observe the thoughts as they come and go. You calm yourself by focusing on your breath until the negative emotion leaves. Just watch the events instead of reacting to them. Mindfulness is calming as your mind shifts the focus to just being the neutral observer of the events. Meditation can help you learn to be more mindful. Stop the knee-jerk reactions and keep your mind in neutral! Like the popular song says, “Just breathe!” Positive Psychology Positive Psychology researches how happy, successful people work their life. The research on brain function shows that certain areas of the left side of the brain activate and light up when you engage in positive thinking. The brain chemicals which create a sense of well being are turned on when you keep your mind in a positive mind set. There are many books written on happiness to show you how to get the most out of your life. Get in the habit of becoming aware when you are thinking negative thoughts and learn ways to shift those thoughts.
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Resilience Some children from troubled homes become successful in life. What makes the successful children different from their brothers and sisters who continue the family patterns of chaos and addictions? Resiliency is the ability to bounce back from life’s problems. There is research showing that one third of children from dysfunctional homes can break out of the negative family patterns and make a success out of their lives. The research shows that achievement seeking and finding positive people for support helps children take on the values and work ethics of success. Self Talk Talking to yourself to calm down when you are upset is a form of Cognitive Behavioral Psychology. The Super Kid Words and Helper Words given in these exercises help you break into negative thoughts and errors in thinking. Self Talk statements give you a new way of looking at things. You can learn to be your own cheerleader and coach when you tell yourself positive words about how you want to be. See yourself becoming how you want to be. Chill Out Helper words show you how to talk yourself down when you are upset. Remind yourself to breathe and keep your cool. Talk to yourself to become strong and resilient.
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Talk Your Feelings Out Two heads can be better than one when figuring tricky things out. Talking about your feelings with a safe person who can help you get a new perspective. A safe person is someone who can listen to you and take your feelings seriously and will keep your private information confidential. They can help you problem solve and figure out what to do with your problem. If talking to your friends or parents doesn’t help solve your problems, then you may need to get some one trained in therapy to help you work things out. Thought Stoppage Telling yourself to stop thinking about negative thoughts is called Thought Stoppage. Anything you do to interrupt your thoughts and get back to your more positive mind can help change your mood. Yelling “Stop!” or “Negative thought get out of here!” puts you in charge of your mind. Distract yourself and tell yourself, “I’m not going there” gives you more control of your mind. Adding a gesture such as shrugging your shoulders or pretending to push the thought away gives added emphasis. Remember to stop giving negative thoughts free rent in your brain!
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Understand the Layers of Emotions Sometimes feelings stack up and hide underneath each other, making it hard to understand what is going on. You can break a big feeling down like anger to see what other emotions might be lurking underneath. There is no set pattern. Hurt and sadness might be hiding under anger. Anger might be hiding under fear and confusion. Find the emotion that is on top and work on releasing it, then ask yourself what other feelings you might have. As you address each separate emotion, the whole stack of feelings might start to shift. Anger Management
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Figure Out how You Cope with Threat Under your deepest feeling you might find a decision of how you decided to keep yourself safe after a highly upsetting experience. Bad things happen in life. The important thing is not always what happens to you, but how you deal with it. Learning to deal with your overwhelming feelings is part of how you cope in life. Now that you are learning about the correct use of your emotions, you can learn better ways of dealing with them. When you were small, you probably tried to figure out how to keep yourself safe and keep the bad experience from happening again. You learned how to cope with threat to keep safe. You might have decided to stop risking or stop speaking out. Or you might have decided to get angry to get others to back off or to get your way. Or you may have tried to shrink down inside yourself and stop breathing to try to be invisible and safe. Or you may have learned to give up when things get tough. The type of coping you figured out as a child may have helped you survive then, but now that you are older, you can learn better ways of taking care of yourself. Staying present in the moment, calming down your wildly swinging emotions and being assertive while you figure out what to do are better strategies than collapsing in fear, not speaking out or exploding in anger.
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Write about Your Feelings Writing about what happened that upset you and your feelings helps you get them out of your head and down on paper or on your computer. The research shows that writing about their feelings and their problems helps people feel better. Writing about the day’s events and the things that upset you is called Journaling. Consider getting a special book or diary so that you can write about the things that make you feel uncomfortable or upset. Or open file on your computer and disguise the name so that you can write about your feelings in private. It’s a Tough World Out There! Today’s life is so stressful. Gather all the tools you can to help you deal with the daily grind that faces you. Learn all these approaches and use them daily as you go through life. The “buzz” word today is learn to modulate your emotions—smooth them out and cope with them. Emotional Intelligence is in your reach if you decide to study it and practice it! As you continue to go through life that you learn and use these ideas and many new ones to deal with your emotions in constructive ways.
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