Anger Management
Anger Management
Written By: Shaundtrya Ganasan, Licensed Counselor (KB11097)
Anger management can be a task. But have you asked yourself ‘Should I sit with my anger to understand it? So that I can figure out ways to manage it tailoring to my anger’s needs.”.
Anger is the most misunderstood emotion.
Anger; most of the time it has been a companion when you struggle to express yourself.
But anger is always a projection of something deeper that we often hide.
It could be pain, frustration, sadness, tiredness, jealousy, and the list goes on.
We often perceive it as unhealthy when in reality it is a messenger that wants to deliver the undiscovered. Anger is like a dark shadow, but when you have a cup of your favorite beverage with it, it may appear like a wounded bunny. It all takes you sitting with it and listening to the story it has to share with you to understand it.
Controlling or ignoring your anger makes it still grow behind the unconscious and reveal itself during unexpected situations. Rather, let’s take a moment to allow it in, instead of pushing it away like an enemy. Let’s have a cup or can of your preferred beverage with your anger; trust me; you will be surprised with the stories it has in store for you.
In this part, we are going to further dive into effective ways to understand and manage your anger. Managing anger is very crucial in maintaining healthy connections with our loved ones and ourselves.
Reminder: If you or your loved one are struggling with anger issues, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at Soul Mechanics KD or Soul Mechanics Ipoh.
Remember, seeking help is not a sign of weakness but strength!
Anger Management Strategies
Below are some strategies that can help you to manage your anger effectively:
Therapy
Therapy guides you to understand your anger with the assistance of a trained mental health practitioner. It helps you to explore the underlying roots that lead to anger, develop personalized strategies to manage it and learn healthier ways to express real emotions.
Journalling
Journaling can act as a medium to understand and explore your emotions. Journaling paves a path for you to reflect and process the unprocessed emotions, leading you to gain more insights into the underlying emotions and wind down. It also prevents you from suppressing emotions that may burst into anger.
Start your self-reflection journey with Soul Mechanics Journal. May your healing journey begin with us. You can purchase our SM WHO Journal here.
Breathing & Relaxation Exercises
Exercises like deep breathing, mindfulness meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation can help you to bring your mind and senses to the present moment; calming your mind and body. These exercises can benefit you in the long term by promoting relaxation and reducing the physiological arousal that is associated with anger.
Taking Time-Out
When you feel anger is bubbling with you or you feel overwhelmed by emotions, practice taking breaks. This helps you to prevent impulsive reactions or exploding into flames of anger. Taking time-out also helps you to calm down, regain your composure, have clearer perspectives, and deal with the situation more calmly.
Assertive Communication
Learning to practice having assertiveness in your communication when needed, further facilitates you to have clear communication; reducing conflict. It also enables you to express your boundaries, needs, and feelings without resorting to anger which promotes understanding in your relationship with others.
Incorporating the strategies that work the best for you into your daily life can help you build healthier ways of responding to your anger; fostering enhanced emotional and mental well-being.
Therapy in Anger Management
Therapy paves you a way to understand your anger better. You also gain more awareness of what is going on within that you may consciously or unconsciously prevent from bringing it to the surface. These insights further help you to manage your anger more effectively.
Therapy also guides you to develop your very own personalized strategies and skills to work on your anger that works best for you.
Below are a few key benefits of therapy on anger management:
Identifying Triggers
Therapy aids you in recognizing and acknowledging specific triggers that fuel your anger. It could be tiredness, guilt, hurt, etc. Identifying patterns helps you to further gain insights into the underlying causes that lead to your emotional responses. This helps you in developing effective strategies to manage them.
Exploring Underlying Issues
Therapy also provides you with a safe space to understand yourself better without any judgment. Having a space to dive deeper within your emotional layers, helps you to address the roots of your anger better. This promotes a deeper and fulfilling inner healing and anger management.
Learning Coping Strategies
A trained professional therapist would also equip you with practical coping skills and therapeutic tools that are tailored to your needs and underlying roots to navigate through your anger. Integrating these tools into your daily lives would help you gain more composure and resilience in responding to challenging situations.
Improving Communication Skills
Therapy facilitates the development of effective communication which allows you to express your emotions more constructively. This paves the way for reducing interpersonal conflicts and brings you to communicate your needs, emotions, and thoughts rather than suppressing them; building healthier relationships.
Challenging Unhealthy Patterns
Therapy guides you to challenge your unhealthy thoughts and behavioral patterns that are associated with anger. Acknowledging and reframing these perspectives, allows you to absorb more adaptive and healthier patterns and beliefs. This can alter your emotional responses and cultivate a more healthy outlook.
In short, seeking therapy can be a valuable approach to understanding and managing your anger effectively. Therapy helps you to find your very own long-term anger management strategies by acknowledging and starting to heal the underlying.
Conclusion
In short, anger is a messenger from the underlying. When you manage to decode the message it is trying to pass, you understand what it needs to heal the part of you that yearns to be seen. Addressing anger is crucial to promote healthier personal and social well-being.
When left unaddressed, it may spiral out of control; leading to destructive behaviors or straining relationships. By seeking therapy, you gain insights and tools to navigate challenging emotions healthily. Therapy opens a safe pathway to explore the underlying such as unresolved conflicts, traumas, or ongoing stressors. It embarks you on a personal journey towards enhanced self-awareness, emotional well-being, and resilience.
“Anger can be the thread that brings you towards the lands of underlying; embarking the healing of the unseen.”
Shaundtrya Ganasan, Licensed Counselor (KB11097)
If you’re looking for a therapist in Kota Damansara or Ipoh area, you can click here for more information.
If you enjoyed reading this, why not broaden the horizon of knowledge by learning about "Anger Issues"?
You can read the blog here.
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