Anger is a healthy emotion, but often we worry it isn’t. Focused on the behaviors anger can lead to, we often avoid thinking about and tackling why we are feeling angry. We all experience anger, from frustration with a co-worker to full-blown anger in a breakup or another scenario. Amongst varying degrees of anger, it’s helpful to have strategies that support regulating these emotions, so that you are not impacted negatively. 

By practicing coping strategies daily, to reduce and manage anger, we can find ourselves better able to manage stressors as they arise. Here are a few daily practices to try that can support this. 

• Communication Strategies

When we are angry, we often have difficulty expressing our feelings. Taking a few moments to allow initial feelings of anger pass, can help to clarify your thoughts rather than stating what you feel in the heat of a challenging moment. By practicing taking a moment to step back in a situation, clarifying your thoughts, you become more able to give yourself time in heated moments to identify what you want to say and what will be effective in communicating your thoughts. 

• Reframing Cognitions

Often when we are angry, we use a lot of negative language. Not just expletives but negative beliefs about ourselves and others. We often engage in all-or-nothing thinking in these moments, seeing the situation in a much more negative light than it might be. Try validation the feelings of anger you may experience, and then reframe negative thoughts around the situation to more realistic ones. Acknowledging a situation isn’t great, but is also not the worst scenario, can be helpful in reducing anger in the moment.

• Relaxation Techniques

The physical symptoms of anger are numerous from shaking, sweating, racing heart, and fatigue after that initial adrenaline rush. Coping strategies like deep breathing, mindfulness strategies like progressive muscle relaxation and others can reduce symptoms of anger. 

With any coping strategy for reducing and managing anger, practice makes perfect. The more you practice these strategies for reducing anger, the easier it is to make use of them in difficult moments.

There are many strategies to manage and reduce anger. Practicing these only makes managing those difficult moments easier. Click here for more strategies and tips in reducing and managing feelings of anger.