Stress often turns into anger; therefore controlling your stress can help you manage your anger.
Stress is an unavoidable part of life. Often, it can feel like daily responsibilities, strains, anxieties, traumas, and pressures leave little room for leisure, rest, relaxation, and recreation. Managing stress today is important because chilling out, lying down and putting your feet up actually help you to reboot and better cope with the stressors of tomorrow. Research shows that you can actually help train your mind and body to healthily respond to stress and that coping with stress may get easier the more you practice good coping skills. It is important to manage stress in healthful, beneficial and nourishing ways.
You may be able to relax your mind by opening up to family and friends; crying, laughing, talking, smiling, writing in a journal, taking up a hobby or other pleasurable activity, caring for a pet, volunteering in the community, meditating, reflecting, and imagining yourself in a safe, calm place. You may be able to relax your body by exercising, stretching, walking, swimming, doing yoga or tai chi, dancing, singing, breathing deeply, and relaxing your muscles.
Managing stress also means working to steer clear of situations, people and behaviors that cause stress. It is important to recognize that you don’t have control over everything, so change the things you can and let the rest go. There are many ways to healthily cope with stress, some include: focusing on the good, being positive, finding support in family and friends, maintaining a healthy diet, limiting alcohol, getting a good night’s sleep, creating a purpose-driven life, having a good sense of humor, managing your time, and striking a balance between family, work, friends, self-interests, responsibilities, and relaxation. A psychologist can help you find ways to manage your stress.
Anger is a powerful, complex, and natural emotion that can be a result of stress and is often characterized as bad, but in general is good for your health. A number of scientists believe that anger can trigger the fight or flight responses to perceived peril or injury, leading some to regard the emotion as an evolutionary plus. Research shows that anger is both psychological and physiological and can generate biological reactions that for all practical purposes are readying the body for intense physical action. Biological responses to anger include: quickened pulse, accelerated breathing, rise in blood pressure and adrenaline, increased energy hormones, dilated pupils, overheating, sweating, and abrupt headaches. Generally, milder forms of anger (e.g. irritation and annoyance) are reactions to everyday stresses, frustrations and disappointments. Anger is often a normal coping mechanism; however, out-of-control, extreme, unprovoked, and frequent outbursts of anger are not normal and can lead to destructive and dangerous consequences.
The costs of severe, unmanaged anger go beyond damaged relationships to health risks such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks, digestive problems, and chronic tension headaches. If left untreated an anger problem can lead to rage and violence, diminish your quality of life, and make you a hazard to yourself and those around you. People with anger problems must learn to monitor and manage their anger-driven emotions and actions. Mental health professionals can support you in anger management by teaching you how to alter destructive thoughts and behaviors into constructive ones, recognize triggers that lead to outbursts, and healthily cope with angry feelings.
Keywords: anger management, stress management, coping skills, relax, improving your life, psychologist, help
Online Resources
10 tips to tame your temper
Mayo Clinic
How to control your anger before it controls you
American Psychological Association
Are you too stressed?
Web MD
What you can do to reduce stress
The American Institute of Stress
