Anger Management: Is It Finally Time To Forgive?

In order to free ourselves from the pain of anger and resentment we need to be able to forgive our self and others. The longer we dwell on hurtful situations from the past, the longer we keep our self from living fully in the present. Forgiveness is an act of kindness. An act of kindness to your self, as it leads to a sense of personal freedom.

Recently I had a client who had a lot of resentment towards her mother for many things that she had done to her in the past.
“I don’t want to forgive my mother for what she did in the past.” my client said. “What she did is wrong, and she has never apologized.”
I hear this very same statement from many clients who are living with resentment, whether it be towards their parents, their spouse, or their boss.

I asked my client if she felt that anyone other than herself, was responsible for, and capable of, making her happy. After a rather long and convoluted discussion, she said that when it was all said and done, she realized that she was indeed the only one that could make herself happy.

We sat there together for a while, and then I took a deep breath and suggested that my client do so as well. Here is an idea, I said. “What if as a totally selfish act, done simply for your own personal happiness, you decided to go ahead and let go of the resentment you had towards your mom, so that you would no longer need to have resentment clouding your life. What would that be like?” “You would not be saying that what was done to you was OK. You would simply be letting go of the resentment so that your own life would be happier. Would you want to let go of your resentment if it meant you would feel greater happiness?”

We sat there together for a while and my client’s face softened. She said that if she was able to let go of her resentment, it would be like lifting a weight from her shoulders, and removing a dark cloud from her heart.

“With all you have been through,” I said. “With all of the pain you have suffered, wouldn’t it be a wonderful gift to yourself if you could lift this weight from your shoulders and remove the dark cloud from your heart? Would it not be wonderful to be freed from your hurt and resentment?”

She sat there for a while, as tears formed, and she said very softly “Yes, I want to feel good. I want to feel love. I want to feel free.”

“So” I said, “In order to free yourself from pain and open your heart to love, you would be willing to go so far as to forgive your mother if this is what you felt was necessary for your own personal happiness?”
She was somewhat hesitant, but said “Yes.”
“Remember” I said, “I am suggesting that you do this purely for selfish reasons. Not because you want to actually forgive your mom at this point in time, but because you want to free yourself to live a happier life.”
My client said “Yes, when it is said like this, I have the resolve to forgive my mother, in order to free myself to live a happier life.”
“Good I said. “Hold these thoughts and feelings in your heart for a while and then we can talk about how to actually accomplish your forgiving.”

How about you? Are you holding onto any resentment? Are you ready to recapture your happiness? Would you be willing to undertake the radical act of forgiveness in order to free yourself? I certainly hope so.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charlie_Badenhop

Anger And Depression

Depression and anxiety are the underlying causes of anger outbursts which are very common in our daily life. When our ideas conflict with someone else’s it gives rise to an argument and that in turn gives rise to fights and more arguments. When you are over your anger outburst, you will naturally think about what happened. You will question yourself and ask, ‘Why was I mad?’, ‘Why was I so angry?’, ‘What did I say?’, ‘What did the other person say?’ and everything that happened starts running in your mind like a movie clip.

However, you will notice that it is not clear and there are even places where you are just blank. You will not be able to remember the whole scenario that happened, because anger took charge over you and you were not controlling your mind any more. Anger manipulated you and used you.

When you are feeling depressed you are far more prone to getting irritated. The main reason is the depression and its causes, but your irritation and frustration is getting out and erupting due to an irritation when you are unable to control your emotions. Anger management techniques are far more difficult to use effectively when you are suffering from depression. Your mind is already in turmoil and your anger management skills are often forgotten.

Anger is a very natural reaction to things that do not go according to the way that we want. Sometimes the situation that you are angry about is genuine and you are right to feel angry, but you need to handle your anger. With good anger management skills you can deal with the problem by confronting it and talking out the problem, because shouting will not help you in the situation, but will make it worse for you.

Most of the time when conflicts are not solved appropriately it leads to complex situations that are harder to handle. In these situations one is likely to get angry and flare up. Such complex situations can easily shatter your personality and destroy your mind, because the problem is complex enough to push you over the edge. People with these symptoms are sufferers of chronic anger post traumatic stress disorder, and require anger management counseling through a certified anger management specialist.

If you are suffering from chronic anger and post traumatic stress syndrome and you are deferring anger management help, then you will only make your condition worse. There are certain anger management strategies that you can apply at an initial level and then seek some anger management group therapy or make an appointment for an anger management session with a therapist. All of these can be extremely helpful in coping with your anger and depression.

People with posttraumatic syndrome are suffering from the following problems:

* Anxiety attacks and mood swings. They are prone to frequent mood swings and anxiety and panic attacks and basically have no control over their emotions.

* Introversion. People with such personality disorders avoid people and social activities, and try to keep themselves isolated from the world.

* They cannot bear loud noises and get very edgy when they are subjected to sudden and loud noises.

If you are reading this article and you think that you are suffering from such problems then you should contact a psychiatrist or anger management therapist, because you might be in need of some medical help.

On an individual level the following can be practiced to recover from the problems of post traumatic stress disorder:

* If you get angry often, and sometimes without any reason, you should do some self-talk in order to know what is going on in your head and create a relationship between you, your mind, and your heart.

* Keep an anger management journal or a log of things that make you angry or frustrated and reach a point where you cannot control yourself and feel pushed. When you have logged some of your problems and have identified them then try to think more positively when such situations arise, because positivity is the key to successful anger management.

* Go to somewhere quiet and shout, yell, and scream as much as you want to pour out every bad feeling inside your heart. This will help you significantly.

* One of the best anger management techniques is to make your mind calm and relaxed by taking deep breaths or taking a long walk to distract yourself from the current situation.

* Indulge yourself in some healthy activity, which you call an anger management strategy. Go for a ride and peddle out your anger and frustration until all the dark emotions are burned out or remember a good memory of yours that will make you smile.

* Music is the food of the mind and soul, so listen to some of your favourite songs and create your own Anger Management soundtrack.

* If you are feeling like hitting someone, then hitting a sandbag will not hurt anyone and your frustration can be released.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Norman_Holden

Temper Management 101

Pushed to Respond? Has the pressure been on and you’ve found yourself simmering and you’ve flared up? Does it sound familiar?

For those who have a temper, anger management will be an issue to contend with for the rest of their life. No matter how long it’s been since you last ‘blew up’ it is only around the corner if you’re not aware of it, or if you haven’t done anything to deal with it.

I know from personal experience that you can be in the middle of ‘an episode’ and have a vague awareness within that sort of says, “What’s going on here; what made you snap?” or, “Settle down, it’s not that bad… look at how you’re scaring your loved ones with your anger!” It is very rare that I snap these days, and when I do it is not that destructive, but the potential is there and I am one person who needs to be constantly reminded of the negative power of my temper.

What are some general ideas to manage temper?

- Discover your trigger(s) and by becoming aware of the stimuli that produces the triggers in you to ‘fuse blowing.’

- Find your own personal strategies to cope with stimuli productively. It needs to be your issue, owned by you.

- Ask yourself, “What could be the underlying issue within me causing me enough frustration to lose my temper?” There is always an underlying issue.

- You only get there with a tenacity to meet your nemesis and grow through it.  It’s a case of trial and error and continual readiness to learn and improve.

- If all else fails seek professional help.

- Always say sorry, and always seek forgiveness. Even then, it might mean you’ve done your dash. Do you deserve another chance to be trusted? Be honest.

In reality we have one of two options open to us in responding to life situations. 1) Respond in fear i.e. anger, temper, envy, malice etc, or 2) respond in love — the antithesis of fear.

We cannot respond in love without faith. If we don’t have faith we have no love to offer, and no strength of love to hold our tongues and resist blowing. Additionally, we need the sight of hope. We need to be able to ’see’ hope. Feel hopeless and you’ve not got a chance.

Anger never achieves anything of worth. By taking time to cool down and then address the problem in the cool light of day, there is always a way that will work in every situation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Wickham

Anger Management - How To Get Free Help Online?

As we advances and progress within the 21st century, there is a constant need to monitor our health, particular our mental health. If you are suffering from the anger management health problems, or you know of someone that has this mental issue, you can for sure get the required help from it.

In fact, there are many ways to get treated and others will not even know that you are suffering from anger management. You can get similar facts and help like from this article online. I believe you can more facts online fast and informative.

There are many resources that you can take advantage of and get great help that you need.

#1 First of all, you have to find out about what you can do to fix your anger is something that anyone can appreciate.

Nobody wants to bottled up all their negative feelings within themselves. Most of them wants to lead a happy and health life.

It is important for a person that is dealing with anger to get the anger management online that they need.

Where to find such information online?

There are many good anger management sites that you can get help from. You can check out the different ways to get help and to stay on track from online sites.

There are many mental practitioners that like to contribute their personal tips and findings online for people to view. They encourage helpful suggestions and often provide them through their website for free as they are aware what the pain of anger can do. This way, they can also promote their services for this needy sufferers.

Do you have to go through this agony?

There is no reason for any living person to suffer the pain of anger. Before anger start to control your life, you can seek necessary help from the online resources. When you only think about being angry and nothing else, it is time for you to seek the appropriate help.

You can go online and get useful tips that will make it easier for anyone to adjust their lifestyle and become happy and better people.

How to prevent being embarrassed?

One has to be aware that that there are many people are simply very embarrassed when dealing with anger. As a matter of fact, there is nothing to hide and this type of mental issues are very common in this competitive world.

Of course, for those that do not want to let others know about their secret obsession, they can find help from the sites of anger management online that are out there.

By knowing that, many people can simply click their mouse to the internet and search for various anti-anger solutions and its helpful tools that it is needed to get their anger sorted out and under control.

Anyone can get it.

For those in need of help of their anger problems, they can find these online sites to help you and there is no cost. This type of help is great for anyone that is limited with his or her income and has no means of getting help any other way.

Sites that are free and provide lots of useful information.

At these sites, you will find more good ideas and links to help your anger problems. Once you got what you are searching for, you will be able to change your life and get back to the old you in no time at all when you finally decide to do something about your anger.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eddy_Kong

Anger Management - 20 Tips and Ideas To Help You Express and Handle Your Anger

The term ‘anger management’ is used to acknowledge that anger is an inevitable, natural human emotion. It is not about getting rid of anger; rather it is about dealing with those emotions so you can express yourself more productively. Consider the following tips and ideas to assist you in managing your anger.

1 Keep a journal. Such reflection helps you become aware of your anger patterns and as such enables you to do something about them. When thinking about your anger, consider the following:

  • How long does each anger episode last?
  • How do you express anger?
  • How often do you become angry?
  • What triggered your anger?
  • How do you feel physically?
  • How do you feel emotionally?
  • What do you do when other people get angry with you?
  • Gaining awareness puts you into a position to think about what you would like to do differently.
  • What is a more productive way to respond?

2 Accept that you do not always have to be right.

3 Learn acceptance of yourself and others.

4 Realise you cannot control the world. You may say “They can’t do that to me”. Actually they can and they did (whether it is right or not).

5 Own your anger rather than blaming the other person for your anger. You have chosen to respond the way you have and this has led to you feeling the way you do.

6 Learn to express your feelings when someone has upset you. So try “I feel angry because of what you just said to me”, rather than saying, “that has made me angry”.

7 Try forgiveness. Let go of anger from your past.

8 Learn how to compromise and accept it is not the end of the world.

9 Count down from 100 until you feel the anger has passed and you are in control once more.

10 Learn ‘thought stopping’. This is useful when you continue to go over and over a particular episode that caused you to feel angry. Consciously stop yourself thinking those thoughts, by saying and thinking ‘STOP’ to yourself.

11 Be assertive. Learn to say what you want and express how you feel, without resorting to verbal or physical abuse.

12 Exercise or do something physical to help release the emotions.

13 Learn how to relax.

14 Listen to the other person and try to see things from their point of view.

15 Learn how to resolve conflict productively.

16 Learn to manage stress.

17 Learn to problem solve. A) define your problem; B) choose your goal; C) brainstorm possibilities and solutions; D) consider the consequences of each possibility; E)choose the most appropriate solution; F) plan and implement your chosen solution; G) evaluate the outcome.

18 Change your thinking. Thoughts such as ‘never’, ‘always’, ‘must’, ‘have to’ are not realistic and are not helpful. You put a lot of burden on yourself and others when you think this way. Challenge these thoughts and construct more realistic alternatives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julia_Barnard

Free Anger Management - Restrain the Anger in Daily Life

If you yet wonder what actually anger management is, take heed to this - The routine of controlling anger is referred to as anger management. Anger management is a measured and self-aware effort to ensure that anger is channeled in the proper manner. Anger that is negatively transmitted can have a painful impact on people close to you.

When you keep yourself filled with different activities, you can disperse your anger. Physical Exercises such as swimming, jogging or even walking can assist to bring down the passion of anger in your system. And so, whenever something materialises that makes you really angry, walk away and be alone for sometime or engage in an workout to direct your mind away from the object of the anger.

Its noteworthy reiterating that one of the better ways of grappling with anger is to find oneself a support group. A support group basically refers to those people who have in effect dealt with or are still fighting with anger. A support group can assist you to wipe away the feeling that you are alone in your struggle with anger.

Verbal abuse can be as scarring as bodily abuse. You may find yourself being peculiarly abusive in your speech whenever you are transfixed by anger. Different times, you may see violent to the extent that you biff the individual who vexes you in blind rage. Either way, anger that is negatively expressed by mouth or hands needs to be controlled.

Misplaced anger can be pernicious. There is naught wrong with being angry sometimes. Nonetheless, you do have a problem if you are forever angry. Checking out ways to clamp down on your anger can assist you target it properly and forestall situations that might induce you to say or practice things that you’ll rue.

Becoming hot under the collar does not make you a wretched person. What draws you in a poor light however is the manner you take to channel that anger. Being denigrative or malicious are lamentable ways of exhibiting anger. You can decide to keep quiet when you are angered or silently and courteously walk off, instead of lashing out at the object or subject of the anger. This shapes far better than losing your temper.

Anger induces both bodily and chemical imbalances in the body. An often angry individual is more likely to endure Hypertension. Angry people often get stricken because of the effect of anger on their bodies. Don’t let anger take control of your life when you can do something about it.

You may never be able to take check of your anger if you dont own up to the role you may have played to cause it. If you are in a habit of laying blame on everybody but yourself when you are angry, you may never be able to check your anger. Taking On the responsibility for your anger allows you to tackle it a good deal more firmly.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Analyn_Gerellana_Gravoso

Try These Anger Management Techniques

Do you find yourself becoming angry at the least little thing? Maybe your toddler interrupts your newspaper reading by climbing on your lap, and you become irritated. Perhaps your wife asks you to take her shopping, and you get angry because you were planning to go golfing. Learning some basic anger management techniques can restore a sense of self-control to your inner or external responses to situations like these. Even if you hold in your anger, it may not hurt others, unless they sense your withdrawal or unspoken irritation, but it will hurt you. Studies show that people who let anger build up inside tend to suffer more health problems than those who have less anger or manage it in productive ways. Many anger management techniques are easy to learn and practice, so give them a try before losing your temper unnecessarily again.

Anger Management Technique #1: Drain the Brain

When your temper begins to flare, one of the best anger management techniques is to mentally challenge yourself before taking out your anger on others. Ask yourself questions about the source of your irritation, the degree of your anger, and the other person’s actual role in the situation. Turn circumstances around to see how you would want to be treated if the other person felt as you do. These mental gymnastics can help you regain control over runaway emotions before they escape and cause external damage.

You also can try traditional anger management techniques to soothe your flare-ups. For example, count to twenty, not ten, before saying anything. Leave the room for several minutes, or hours, if necessary, before discussing sensitive issues that may provoke your anger. Write out a response to a problem before tackling it orally or in debate. This will give you time to think about the best approach to a problem rather than responding with random anger.

Anger Management Technique #2: Walk it Off

In those moments when you feel the familiar rage start to rumble, excuse yourself if others are present and take a quick walk down the hall or outdoors, depending on whether you are at home or at work, and the weather conditions. Even a five- or ten-minute stroll, especially one that is fast-paced, will help to cool your irritation as you practice the fight-or-flight strategy by escaping the potential conflict, which is one of the more popular and useful anger management techniques.

Other valuable anger management techniques include keeping a diary and writing about negative emotions to get them out of your system. You also may want to keep a pet, since studies show that petting a dog or cat, for example, helps to reduce blood pressure levels and harmful substances in your system that can damage blood vessels if left unchecked. Talking over situations with a trusted friend and venting to a therapist are two more anger management techniques used by thousands.

Don’t let anger get the best of you. Experiment with these and other anger management techniques, or visit useful websites like anger-management-information.com (site is not complete yet) for more information on how to tame the beast of anger in your breast.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Hill