Managing Your Anger

Anger is a fact of life. It's an emotion that is necessary to our existence, but an emotion that often does more damage than good when things get out of hand. Uncontrolled and inappropriate anger often leads to verbal or physical abuse, emotional damage, and sometimes damage of property.

To properly manage our anger we must be able to access what's causing these feelings, before looking for a realistic solution.

Fatigue - If you find yourself in a position where you're over-tired, over-worked, or over-stressed, naturally your mind will have trouble controlling the situation and cope with problems that arise. Exhaustion makes us lose our patience and temper more than usual.

Alcohol and Drugs - These chemicals completely transform the way your mind develops and react, greatly impairing your problem-solving capability, leading to difficulty controlling your temper and stress-levels. Intoxication and the influence of drugs can cause us to become easily provoked and liable to have violent reactions to the smallest of things while under the influence, as well as in the long-term.

So How Can I Manage My Anger?

Attitude awareness is key to controlling anger. At certain times anger is justifiable, nevertheless, the validity of our emotions doesn't provide us a solution. In these cases, it's best to simply tell yourself "that's life" and move on. Allowing your anger to grow will never achieve anything but destruction and pain for you or others.

Ignoring anger is a very bad idea. Too often we see in the media the disastrous results of suppressed anger building up. The key is to find a way to express your anger in a productive, non-violent manner. Turning anger into passion is a great idea, engaging in an activity such as art, music or sports.

Know Your Limits - If you already know that you're easily angered, constantly remind yourself that there's always a possibility your anger will push you to commit acts of violence, that you need to take responsibility for your actions.

It's important to acknowledge that anger isn't all bad; it's the way we express our anger that can lead to trouble. Managing anger is key, especially if one has the tendency to lose control over tricky-situations big or small.

Below are some basic tips to use as a quick reference when you feel the need to control your anger.

• Assess what's making you angry
• Be aware of the role a negative attitude plays in encouraging anger
• Don't dwell on things. If something makes you angry, deal with it, express your anger appropriately if need be, and get over it!
• Respond - do not react. Taking a step back to clear your head and figure out how to respond prevents a regretful situation.

Believe it or not, you and you alone have the ultimate choice on how to respond to every situation you face each day. Be prepared to bite your tongue, take a step back, relax then assess the situation at hand.