Anger: Meaning

It is an emotion of

• Annoyance
• Irritation
• Fury
• Rage
• opposition
• Resentment
• enragement
• Maddening

Degrees of Anger

Ranges from mere irritation to extreme rage

Manifestation and Effects of Anger

• Change in facial expressions
• Change in body language
• Aggressive actions
• Loud or cold voice
• Internalizing the anger, boiling inside but not expressing
• Increase in heart rate
• Increase in blood pressure
• Increase in level of adrenaline
• Impairs ability to process information
• Impairs prudence and objectivity
• Reduces your empathy towards others and may cause harm to them
• Increases sugar and cholesterol levels

Causes of Anger

• Expectations from others (including organizations) are not met
• Expectations from self are not met
• Feeling of being exploited
• Sense of being victimized
• Abuse (physical and verbal) by others
• Been insulted or feeling of being insulted or humiliated
• Disagreements with others

Ways of Dealing with Anger and Their Outcome

1. Suppress: results in blood pressure, ulcers
2. Wrong actions and/or wrong word: results in regret/justification which in turn results in strained relations, ill feeling, guilt, loss of self esteem
3. Ventilate harmlessly: results in no tension/stress
4. Communicate and resolve: results in resolution/solution, no tension/no stress, strengthening relationship

Managing Anger

• Train yourself to start identifying your emotions
• If you try to understand the normal causes of anger and how getting angry is harmful mainly to you and your relationships with others, do not immediately react to any stimulus of anger.
• When you do get angry, remind yourself that you are getting angry
• Say to yourself, "stop, stop...." (it's your emotional stop button and press it when needed)
• Do not react immediately
• Move away physically from the place of anger episode
• Sleep over the matter
• Later ponder over the matter in your own time and space
• Try to understand the cause(s) of anger
• Try to solve/resolve those causes by yourself and taking others into account or seeking their involvement