Managing anger is quite difficult especially when things do not go in your perceived direction or in the right way. The consequences of not managing or controlling your anger are way worse than our imagination. It could lead to anything like yelling at our kids, saying things that we might regret later, losing a job, developing mental and physical health issues, or physical abuse. When I say manage your anger, I am not asking you to never get angry or stop expressing your feelings. Instead, I am asking you to adopt strategies that are positive and helps you in expressing your thoughts in a productive and healthy way. In this blog, I have enlisted the 12 best anger management strategies that will help you to keep your calm down especially on gloomy days. These anger management strategies are personally tested and are recommended by a therapist. So, let’s get started.
12 Best Anger Management Strategies
1. Identify your triggers
The first step you could take to manage your anger is to identify your triggers. By identifying your triggers, you will be able to control your anger. For example, if you feel like excessive tiredness or overworking are the reasons behind your anger, you can simply adopt healthier ways to not experience them or you can adopt habits that help in coping with these two.
2. Acknowledge and evaluate your anger
If you feel like you have excessive anger issues or you have mild anger issues, you need to acknowledge that yes, you have anger issues and you will fight with them no matter what. In this way, you will be able to change a toxic situation to a positive one and you will never regret your actions in the future or later. It is one of the best ways to tackle your emotion and calming yourself down in a toxic situation.
3. Recognize warning signs
After acknowledging your feelings and identifying your triggers, work on recognizing your warning signs. Whenever any toxic situation enters our life, it gives us a sign or signs which we tend to ignore and later regret. Therefore, do not turn those signs into regret and instead work on them with positivity. Stop stepping into gray areas.
4. Step away from toxicity
I personally feel that we can sense toxicity from distance. Therefore, whenever you feel like you can get yourself into a toxic situation, simply step away from it. Instead of trying to win an argument or proving yourself in front of toxic people, try not to fuel your anger, and remove yourself calmly from the situation.
5. Take the help of a support system
Whenever you see yourself stuck in a negative situation, you can try communicating your feelings with your support system. This is one of the best ways to control your anger. You can discuss everything related to your anger with your friend or a family member without being judged. Make sure your support system is also helping in developing a solution.
6. Move along with positive vibes
If you find your situation is uncontrollable or unmanageable, you can walk away positively from the situation instead of getting or showing your anger without any reason or any solution. Clearly, uncontrollable situations cannot be managed therefore, just ignore them and move away from them with positive vibes.
7. Manage your thoughts by Journaling
Angry thoughts and negativity are the sources of anger and managing them is really effective. Therefore, you can manage your thoughts with the help of journaling. By journaling your thoughts or feelings on an everyday basis you will be able to manage your angry thoughts. Not only this, you will be able to adopt positive habits that will help in controlling your anger.
8. Challenge your thoughts
One of the best ways to overcome your anger is to challenge them so that you can reflect more on positivity. You can simply start by asking or reminding yourself about the angry thoughts and replace them with sentences like, “I will not get angry today, I will try to stay positive today, or I will not say words to anyone that I might regret later.”
9. Change your focus
Instead of focusing on negative thoughts, you can change your focus to something positive. Rumination may exaggerate your anger; therefore, try to change your focus on something that gains your attention. You can try doing activities that are new, unique, and attractive. You can try gardening, dancing, singing, reading, or playing with your kids or pet. In this way, you will be able to stop your rumination cycle and adopt a more healthy and positive lifestyle.
10. Focus more on relaxation techniques
Next time whenever you get angry or find yourself in an angry situation, you can try relaxation techniques like breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation techniques. The best part I love about relaxation techniques is that you can perform them anywhere or anytime throughout the day and their benefits can be seen quickly and discreetly. Relaxation techniques are the overall best practices to manage your anger.
11. Explore your feelings
Anger often comes with painful emotions like sadness, disappointment, and embarrassment. Therefore, you should stop criticizing yourself and start taking things positively. You can begin with acknowledging your feelings, find the source of the problem, and take appropriate action towards fixing them.
12. Create your own “calm down” kit
For example, if you feel like your reason behind anger is overstressed or overworking hours, you can create your own “calm down kit” for relaxing. While creating and customizing your own “calm down kit” make sure you have added or engaged with all your senses like smell, touch, hear, and look so that you can change your emotional state positively.
I hope this blog helps you with the 12 best anger management strategies for gloomy days.
Thanks for reading!