4 tips to keep your anger in check

In her book Fallout, novelist Ellen Hopkins said, “Anger is a valid emotion. It's only bad when it takes control and makes you do things you don't want to do.” She was right.

All of us feel angry at some point. The emotion is as normal as feelings of love, excitement, sadness or happiness, etc. But anger is also the most misunderstood emotion and people are often expected to hide it or not express it at all.

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Feeling angry is natural but it is how you channel this emotion that makes all the difference. Many a times we express our anger by yelling, throwing things and fighting with others. But the key is to take a pause and ask yourself: is it really worth it? Anger is good when you do not let it overpower you. As oxymoron as it may be, ‘constructive anger’ can help you go a long way towards expressing negative energy in a positive manner. Compiled from Psychology Today, here are four ways you can do so.

Be angry about the things that matter

There are so many things in the world that you can be angry about. The trick is to listen to your anger and know what your inner self is telling you.

Do not be angry, set some boundaries

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You can be angry at the world being round but there is hardly anything you can do about right? Similarly, you cannot be angry at how someone else treats you. Usually someone who mistreats you is just not happy themself. There is no need to validate their negative criticism. So, how about you set some ground rules? If nothing else, ignorance is bliss.

Use anger to achieve your goals

If you hate your job and are angry about how your boss never appreciates your efforts, how about you use that anger to propel yourself towards a job that is more rewarding? Let your anger make you go that extra mile and get out of the suffocating environment.

Anger can help you strengthen your relationships

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Instead of lashing out instantly, how about you give yourself some time to think through the situation? For instance, if a friend ditches a plan you guys had made weeks ago, breathe, put yourself in their position and then ask yourself if you would have gotten angry at yourself had something come up for you last minute?

This will allow you to express your anger in ways that might help heal your hurt feelings and mend any riffs your friend's behaviour may have caused. Talk to them, tell them to get their work done and plan for another meeting later.

The trick is to understand you are angry about a certain something, feel it and let it go. You don’t want to be at the mercy of a powerful and misunderstood emotion because no matter what, you are going to get angry about something at some point in life.

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