What Is Anger?
Anger can be defined in many ways: from a loss of calmness, displeasure or irritation, to hostility or rage. When anger takes control, it is nearly impossible to focus on anything except that which has made us angry. Feelings of anger might dissipate after a few moments, linger for a day or take hold for months or years. Sadly, many people lead lives of one volatile encounter after another and don’t know why or how to overcome anger.
“When you have a long history with anger, when you’ve put a lot of emotional energy into that anger, you’ve imprinted a pattern in your brain that’s hard to break.”
Anger Builds
Anger often starts off as something small and builds. You’re impatient, irritation grows, judgment leads to blame and now you’re angry. Justified or not, the anger causes incoherence in your heart rhythms that activates stress hormones. Research has shown one five-minute episode of anger is so stressful it impairs your immune system for more than six hours.
The Quest to Overcome Anger
Eliminating anger and the longstanding habits that allow anger to trigger can be hard at first. The good news is HeartMath techniques have been proven effective in breaking the cycle of anger and all of its consequences. The techniques are very easy to learn and are based on extensive scientific research that has revealed how the heart and the brain communicate.
“Search your heart,” the saying goes, for therein lies the answer. Heart intelligence, we now know, is a resource that not only can help us overcome anger, but can guide us in transforming our entire lives as well and the process can be scientifically monitored.
“In recent years, neuroscientists have made an exciting discovery. They’ve found that the heart has its own independent nervous system – a complex system referred to as ‘the brain in the heart.’ The heart’s intrinsic brain and nervous system relay information back to the brain in the cranium, creating a two-way communication system between heart and brain.”
Transforming Anger: The HeartMath® Solution for Letting Go of Rage, Frustration, and Irritation Childre, Rozman, 2003
If you feel you can’t control your anger, this book offers you hope as well as practical tools to help you succeed. You’ll learn what researchers and scientists have learned: The human heart has intelligence all its own that you can tap into to overcome anger, stress and much more. Also includes complete details of the Go to Neutral Tool.
A HeartMath TIP:
The moment a feeling of anger starts to arise is the time to employ this simple exercise adapted from the HeartMath Go to Neutral Tool.
- Take a time-out to disengage from your thoughts and feelings, especially stressful ones. Actually say to yourself, “time out,” as you recognize and feel your emotional triggers, then step back from all reactions to them.
- Shift your focus to the area around your heart and feel your breath coming in through your heart and going out through your solar plexus.
- Tell yourself, “Go to neutral,” and remain in this neutral zone until your emotions ease and your perceptions relax.
Benefits of Living Anger Free
- Relationships, communication improve
- Enriched outlook on life
- Healthier, more energy
- Calmer around people
- More focused at work, school, play
“The relationship between anger, heart attacks and other adverse health effects is well documented. You can learn how to not only defuse this deadly emotion, but how you can transform it into positive feelings.”
