Malnutrition, lack of exercise, and a poor sense of humor will put a chip on your shoulder. The anger library offers you a collection of material that will help you control these factors and convert them into powerful interventions that will increase your ability to manage your anger. You're not expected to use the whole library at once, so browse through it and take out the work of your choice.
Anger Attrition Through Nutrition
Nutrition affects how you manage your anger in more ways than you think. For example, when you confront an anger-arousing situation, your muscles become tense, producing a high level of lactic acid. If your diet is deficient in milk or leafy vegetables, you may not have enough calcium to buffer the lactic acid, making it harder for you to effectively relax to counteract the anger arousal. Inappropriate eating habits also figure in high blood, obesity, irritability, headaches, fatigue, and poor self esteem - all symptoms that not only increase your vulnerability to anger, but also make it more difficult to manage your anger.
Eating a variety of foods from the four food groups and avoiding processed snacks is the best way to assure that you get the forty to sixty nutrients you need to stay healthy.
Exercising Out Anger
Vigorous physical exercise effectively works out anger because it provides a natural outlet for anger arousal and the daily muscular tension your body builds. There are two major rules for choosing and implementing exercise:
#1: Make sure you like the exercise
#2: Be consistent
Honoring rule #1 will make it a lot easier to honor rule #2.
Brisk walking may well be the one activity that will produce the most benefit for the greatest number of people. Here is one implementation of a walking program:
- For five minutes, walk at a vigorous pace.
- Alternate one minute of slow jogging with one minute of brisk walking. It is good policy to continue jogging until you feel winded. Then slow down to a brisk walk for a minute.
- Take a cool down period to gradually restore you to physical equilibrium. Always finish your exercise sessions with five minutes of slow walking. Take long steps, let you arms hang loose and shake your hands and rotate your head around on your neck a few times.
After you start a walking program it will be easier for you to start other exercise programs.
Laughing More
How many laughs do you think you have in a day? If it's under fifteen (three of which should be belly laughs), classify yourself as an under laughed individual. A good sense of humor makes you laugh more and be angry less. Laughing helps you work out anger because the physiological arousal it produces is antagonistic to anger arousal. When you laugh, you release the physical and mental tension that is leading you towards anger or is maintaining your anger. For at least a moment, you can forget about your troubles. But that moment gives you the time to reassess the situation more productively - and in a better mood.
The best way to increase your laughter is to develop your sense of humor. Our sense of humor is not innate. You can learn to be funny. Here are some ways to get some more laughs and help you develop your humor skills:
- Put on your Just for Laughs glasses. Take ten minutes or so out of your day, distancing yourself from your home or office environment, and pretending your just watching a television show. Look around you and observe the silly, goofy, and therefore very human activities going on that just a few minutes ago seem so serious, earth shaking and stomach churning. This is can be a terrifically lightening and enlightening experience.
- Use humor meditation. For five or ten minutes, whatever amount of time you can spare during the tensest part of your day, stop and take a humor meditation break. During this meditation, shut out the outside world and read a funny story, think of a past funny experience, watch a funny video.
- Create a humorous environment. Create a humor-filled environment by putting up cartoons, funny pictures, jokes, humorous quotes and more, in your room or office.
- Exaggeration. Exaggeration is one of the most important and versatile humor skills that you can have in your repertoire. It quickly puts things in perspective while making a point.
Playfulness
Playfulness is a crucial humor skill that can be learned and practiced. Being playful with words, images, associations, and situations can be of great help if you are serious about nurturing your sense of humor. Playfulness is an important attribute in developing flexible thinking. Puns, rhymes, and funny images are all good ways to be playful.
Anger Attrition Through Nutrition
Nutrition affects how you manage your anger in more ways than you think. For example, when you confront an anger-arousing situation, your muscles become tense, producing a high level of lactic acid. If your diet is deficient in milk or leafy vegetables, you may not have enough calcium to buffer the lactic acid, making it harder for you to effectively relax to counteract the anger arousal. Inappropriate eating habits also figure in high blood, obesity, irritability, headaches, fatigue, and poor self esteem - all symptoms that not only increase your vulnerability to anger, but also make it more difficult to manage your anger.
Eating a variety of foods from the four food groups and avoiding processed snacks is the best way to assure that you get the forty to sixty nutrients you need to stay healthy.
Exercising Out Anger
Vigorous physical exercise effectively works out anger because it provides a natural outlet for anger arousal and the daily muscular tension your body builds. There are two major rules for choosing and implementing exercise:
#1: Make sure you like the exercise
#2: Be consistent
Honoring rule #1 will make it a lot easier to honor rule #2.
Brisk walking may well be the one activity that will produce the most benefit for the greatest number of people. Here is one implementation of a walking program:
- For five minutes, walk at a vigorous pace.
- Alternate one minute of slow jogging with one minute of brisk walking. It is good policy to continue jogging until you feel winded. Then slow down to a brisk walk for a minute.
- Take a cool down period to gradually restore you to physical equilibrium. Always finish your exercise sessions with five minutes of slow walking. Take long steps, let you arms hang loose and shake your hands and rotate your head around on your neck a few times.
After you start a walking program it will be easier for you to start other exercise programs.
Laughing More
How many laughs do you think you have in a day? If it's under fifteen (three of which should be belly laughs), classify yourself as an under laughed individual. A good sense of humor makes you laugh more and be angry less. Laughing helps you work out anger because the physiological arousal it produces is antagonistic to anger arousal. When you laugh, you release the physical and mental tension that is leading you towards anger or is maintaining your anger. For at least a moment, you can forget about your troubles. But that moment gives you the time to reassess the situation more productively - and in a better mood.
The best way to increase your laughter is to develop your sense of humor. Our sense of humor is not innate. You can learn to be funny. Here are some ways to get some more laughs and help you develop your humor skills:
- Put on your Just for Laughs glasses. Take ten minutes or so out of your day, distancing yourself from your home or office environment, and pretending your just watching a television show. Look around you and observe the silly, goofy, and therefore very human activities going on that just a few minutes ago seem so serious, earth shaking and stomach churning. This is can be a terrifically lightening and enlightening experience.
- Use humor meditation. For five or ten minutes, whatever amount of time you can spare during the tensest part of your day, stop and take a humor meditation break. During this meditation, shut out the outside world and read a funny story, think of a past funny experience, watch a funny video.
- Create a humorous environment. Create a humor-filled environment by putting up cartoons, funny pictures, jokes, humorous quotes and more, in your room or office.
- Exaggeration. Exaggeration is one of the most important and versatile humor skills that you can have in your repertoire. It quickly puts things in perspective while making a point.
Playfulness
Playfulness is a crucial humor skill that can be learned and practiced. Being playful with words, images, associations, and situations can be of great help if you are serious about nurturing your sense of humor. Playfulness is an important attribute in developing flexible thinking. Puns, rhymes, and funny images are all good ways to be playful.
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