Many people tend to suppress their anger when this powerful emotion surfaces, as it can be overwhelming and shocking. However, suppressing anger, which is a normal human emotion, can lead to significant physical harm, most especially when the levels of anger are extending past the boundaries of normal levels.
These significant physical damages include anxiety, depression, and even high blood pressure and heart problems if you experience chronic anger. There are a few key steps you can follow to ensure it won’t come to this.
Some methods include breathing deeply, talking to yourself positively, and mentally imagining a barrier between your controlled self and your angered thoughts. When you breathe deeply, make sure you draw air from your diaphragm, as this can provide a more proper posture and a clearer mind.
When you speak to yourself on positive notes, you can either recite simple words or phrases, such as “relax” or “just take it easy.” You can repeat this to yourself until the intense anger eventually subsides.
Imagining a mental barrier in your mind can be a bit tricky and requires quite a deal of concentration. Summoning enough concentration to envision this while at the peak of your anger can seem impossible, but planning a scene beforehand can help imagining this barrier easier.
Many people have different interpretations as to how this barrier can be formed. Some people create a brick wall being raised, separating the vivid, intense fires of a burning forest from a bright and pleasant meadow. Others will create a literal image of themselves— one image expressing anger, and the other expressing control. These two figures will then be mentally placed in separate locations, isolating and doing away with the one expressing anger.
You can get creative with planning your scenario, as long as it involves isolating your anger and being able to place it in a corner you can monitor. This is also known as a form of meditation.
If you are not too adept with your imagination and rely more heavily on logic, you can use perspective as a way to try and understand the side and reasoning of the source of your anger if it involves another individual. Usually, stepping into another’s shoes will give you a better idea of why things have come to this disagreement, and will allow for a more peaceful conflict both within yourself and the other parties involved. Whichever technique you choose, the main goal is to establish peace and control within your thoughts.
