Anger Management Techniques

“I’ve observed that anger issues are rising in modern society,” says psychotherapist Seema Hingoranny. “Today I deal with at least 25 cases of individuals with anger issues a month, whereas it used to be four cases earlier. For example, there is more anger and aggression in the workplace than ever before.”

Seema says that while anger may manifest itself in relationship issues, as road rage or as bullying in a corporate setting, what is common is that the subject suffers acute distress himself and causes consequent distress among the people in his/her environment.

She has two primary methods of tackling anger issues — the first is through reducing stress on the individual by ensuring a regular diet and adequate relaxation. “A certain minimum amount of restful sleep, exercise and relaxation  techniques such as meditation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation are immensely helpful in tackling stress-related anger, especially among employees.

While spiritualists advocate the replacement of aggressive, competitive models of thinking and behaviour with methods of co-operation and co-existence among people in order to tackle the issue, singer Hard Kaur has found a safety valve in laughter. “If someone is being disrespectful or gossiping about me with respect to work, instead of getting angry, I just laugh at it. If I can’t completely ignore it then laughter is the next best thing and it puts things in perspective” she says. She has also found that often it’s necessary to correct people on their mistaken assumptions albeit in a sensible way. “One can’t be silent all the time when one is being wronged and often it serves one best to speak up resolutely in the face of injustice.”

Choreographer Achala Sachdev finds that she has an anger issue with mediocre work. “I aim to be perfect myself and I expect extreme efficiency from others in work related issues - when that is not forthcoming, I find myself getting angry,” she admits.

Anger messed up her relationships with others in this respect until she learnt a better way. “You can’t really manage anger but you can certainly learn to convert it into positive thinking, positive energies and understanding,” she believes. “Mediation has helped me a great deal. Today when I find myself getting angry with a junior, I breathe deeply and walk away from the situation. I return to the situation when I’ve learnt to process it in a different way and can explain to the person calmly and without anger what I expect from him or her. That canturn out to be a win-win situation for both of us.”