How to Manage Your Temper and Anxiety
Recognising and controlling your own emotion is a useful ability for dealing with stress and anger. If you struggle to prevent yourself from panicking or flying off the handle, then your interactions with others can be more negative than positive. This can harm any form of relationships, including your career.
Hope is at hand, there are plenty of things you can do to start handle your emotions more effectively. Here we will look at some of the best strategies for controlling anger and anxiety helping you control your reactions and achieve social success.
Breathing through stress
When you feel yourself getting worked up the most important thing to remember is to breathe, both steadily and deeply. Anxiety and stress trigger something called the fight or flight response. This releases chemicals within our brains like noradrenaline, cortisol and glutamate, that prepare us to either to fight the situation or escape the situation.
This reptilian survival instinct dates back to the days of cavemen and would typically have been for when a predator appeared. However, stress is very different today. It’s long-term and usually there’s no predator to fight. This can lead to unnecessary aggression and anxiety from these chemical changes.
By breathing steadily though, you can cause the nerves in your parasympathetic nervous system to kick in. This has a relaxing effect to oppose the fight or flight response. Use this natural method of counteracting the chemicals to calm yourself down and get on with your day.
Cognitive Restructuring
This means looking at the thought patterns that are causing you to get angry and replacing them with relaxing and calming thoughts instead. This restructuring process can influence your emotional reactions. For example if you find yourself approaching road rage, reminding yourself that ‘staying calm means you win’ can help. After all there’s no point in getting worked up and wasting that energy on someone you’ll probably never see again.
Use Biofeedback
Monitoring your biology can give you an indication of your stress level. The easiest way to do this is with a heart rate monitor. This is subtle and easy, with the wide variety of fitness trackers available to choose from.
This can teach you what your triggers are before becoming angry. If you use the breathing techniques you mastered earlier, your heart-rate will go back down to a normal level. This practice will help you develop an awareness of your body and mind.
Some of us need a little extra support to manage anger or anxiety. If you feel that you could benefit from professional help get in touch with Birmingham Counselling Services at: https://birminghamcounsellingservices.co.uk/