Dealing With Anger Part 1
Do you ever feel angry?
Do you ever feel angry?
You are not alone - it's a natural reaction to a provocative situation. The bad news is that it is killing you slowly through stress, high blood pressure and unhappiness.
There are a lot of things that annoy me in life, and its very easy to get angry about them. I've also noticed that there is a certain type of person who seems to know EXACTLY what to say to make me absolutely furious in a really short space of time. Add such a person to an already annoying day and I can go from calm to raging in less than a minute! What I always try to remember, though, is that these feelings are damaging to both my health and happiness. And if I make the mistake of letting them affect my physical actions I will only harm myself.
For example, I was at a set of traffic lights when a guy in a BMW X6 tried to force his way ahead of me into my lane. Now, I drive an old green Volvo, but heres the rub its not what people expect; its fast (I mean REALLY fast. 5 cylinders and a turbo with all the racing modifications. Youd never know unless you looked under the hood, or realised your Porsche couldnt pull away from it on the freeway). I had nowhere to go but forward, and the only way to get there safely was to accelerate past the Beemer, which then had to slow down and pull in behind me.
Just a normal tale of rush hour traffic - except that he got angry. REALLY angry. So angry, in fact, that at the next set of lights he decided to jump out of his car and try to physically attack me.
I was lucky - I didn't need to get angry. I didn't need to respond. I simply drove away when started banging on the window. I'm still not sure what made him so upset; it may have been simple road rage, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it was disappointment with his high-priced, low-performanced purchase.
I saw him in the mirror as I pulled ahead; his anger went very quickly and he looked rather embarrassed about what he'd tried to do proving that, on this occasion, his disproportionate reaction only harmed HIM.
But have YOU ever felt like jumping out of your car and hitting someone? Do you shout and scream and angrily gesticulate when you think someone has wronged you?
And how long does your rage last after the moment has passed? Quite a while, I would guess...
The real question is if you are getting angry often rather than occasionally, and perhaps youre even worried about what will happen one day if someone REALLY pushes your buttons, perhaps you should think about this:
Is my behaviour helping me, or hindering me?
Its a good question: if your natural response to any situation is so aggressive that it sabotages your health, physical well-being and emotional equilibrium then YOU are damaging YOU.
If you think this may be a possibility, read on to Part 2 of this article to find out how to start making your reactions work for you, rather than against you.
by: Benjamin Cook
Dealing With Anger Part 2 The Four Types of Anger, or All You Ever Wanted to Know About Anger (But Were Too Pissed Off to Ask!) by:John Schinnerer, Ph.D. How Does A Voice Changer Work? by:Christopher Winkler The Dangers Of FarmVille Cheats 3 Techniques to Control Your Anger