Anger is only a secondary emotion, where you will feel it after some other emotion. With it being a secondary emotion, it isn’t something that should be prominent in our lives. However, some adolescents haven’t learned their true emotions fully, so they resort to what they know, anger. This is something that can become out of control as we progress in life, so being able to recognize that it is a secondary emotion, may help you manage your anger on a whole other level. I believe that as we are developing into young adults, we aren’t trained on what true emotions are, which in turn, creates a lot of teenagers being angry. It can be mitigated in several different ways, but just having a full understanding of yourself will create that buffer between acting out and saying/doing something we don’t mean or controlling our anger. Through anger management courses, it needs to be something that the person will enjoy, otherwise they will just become angry that they are doing it in the first place.
There is a copious amount of management techniques that one can do to better enhance their anger management skills. However, it is the same as anything that pertains to self-help, it all can vary per person. Some people go through the educated way of managing their anger, with counselors that never really lived a rough life, so how can they understand what this angry teenager is all about. With the different perspectives, there are different implications. The first of the three activities for anger management, would be to get to know yourself better, instead of focusing on others around you. According to Julie Peters (n.d.), we have every right to feel anger, just as much as sadness and joy, because it is our emotion, but we just need to know how to hone it. Most adolescents at out in the anxious/fear aspect of anger, and make decisions that they don’t mean to do, or say things they don’t mean full heartedly. So being able to assess yourself and lay the groundworks of why you felt a certain way in a certain situation can help you. A great activity for this topic would be to write down your feelings right after they had risen. Whether it is a text message to yourself, or what have you, as long as you are able to assess it and put it on paper to read again. This will give you the ability to find other relative situations that made you feel the same way and build that up.
Another activity that I would advise would be to do physical activity. There is just something about being in the gym, putting yourself through physical stress for an hour or two. The way I look at it, and the way I will explain it to my clients is, we won’t face anything harder than what we put ourselves through on purpose. Putting yourself through that physical stress on purpose just makes all other problems seem minimal. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t still feel the emotion of the external situation, but they shouldn’t hinder their internal perception of themselves. Recognizing that there are people out there that will purposely make you angry, assists you on determining if it is a waste of time, or if you should try and help them be a better communicator.
The last activity that I would recommend would be to practice some sort of mindfulness meditation. Going through the steps of a guided meditation can really get yourself in tune with your mind-body-spirit complex. Meditation has been a old traditional Chinese medicine for centuries now, and is just now making a come back to the mainstream world now days. Miles for Migraines (n.d.) states that emotions are a big aspect of meditation, were you allow them to be present and be able to channel them, whether it is joy, sadness, anxiousness, and even anger. Accepting their presence and letting them go can actually enhance your ability to do it in real time in the real world. It can be done on a daily basis, or even periodically throughout the week, whenever you feel like your emotions are too hard to handle.
In conclusion, these might only be three activities to do to help manage your emotions, mainly your anger and frustrations. However, there are so many other tasks that can be completed to mitigate the feeling of anger and all other emotions. Understanding yourself first is the biggest key aspect to this, where it can lead you to a level of self-love, thus giving you the ability to love others around you. Physical activity, and meditation can be done at the same time, within the same hour. I have found that meditating after a rigorous workout has given me better mindfulness meditation sessions. There is just something about being so physically broken down, that your mind and spirit seem to be stronger. It will be uncomfortable at first, but in order to progress into a positive mindset, you must step out of your comfort zone.
-Cyral I Callender III
References
Miles for Migraines. (n.d.). The Mind-Body Connection: Managing Migraine.
Peters, Julie. (n.d.). The Spirituality of anger. Retrieved (April 5, 2021) from: https://spiritualityhealth.com/blogs/pathfinding-yoga-and-mindfulness/2015/12/23/julie-peters-spirituality-anger
Health and Wellness Repertoire 
Leave a comment