10 scary ways anger can impact your health...and 17 easy ways to better manage it

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison & expecting the other person to die” -Buddha
 
Sometimes I just can’t help myself. I lose my cool. I’m in a rush to get somewhere and I’m behind what I like to refer to as “blockaders”. I know you’ve experienced blockaders before. They are those two annoyingly persistent cars blocking the lanes ahead of you. They stay dead even with each other, almost conspiratorially, as they prevent any hope of you passing either one of them for miles and miles.
 
I’m at the coffee shop eager to get my daily caffeine fix and I’m the only customer in line. Yet my order is taking forever because of the million mobile orders that are ahead of me.
 
I get home and once again my sweet little anxious pup has scratched up my front door. I settle down, ready to get some work done on my computer only to find a slower than slow Internet connection awaiting my arrival.
 
In all of these instances I try to keep a level head. These are, after all, relatively minor modern day inconveniences. But the problem is, life is filled with these minor irritations and they are ongoing! They are chronic in nature. This means that you either learn to accept them or you continue to stress over them. Continuing to stress over them means accepting the health consequences as well. Anger and irritation lead to stress. Acute stress causes an acute (and short-lived) response in the body. Chronic stress causes chronic problems.
 
Effects on the body
Anger turned inward can be dangerous. Anger on its own never resolves anything.  In fact, it could be doing far more harm to you than the person who is the target of your wrath.
 
Think about what happens when you get mad. Most of the time you’re so focused on what’s making you angry that you don’t take a second to really feel what’s actually going on in your body.
 
Consider for a second the effects of anger and then ask yourself if this could be healthy when experienced chronically. You breathe faster, your heart beats harder, you experience some stomach discomfort, and your muscles tense up. If you were really mad maybe you won’t be able to sleep that night or you start to develop a bad headache later.
 
All of these reactions are indeed a normal part of a fight or flight response. But fight or flight is supposed to be fleeting in nature. After a few minutes or so, the body is supposed to return to its baseline. But with everyday irritations, this fight or flight response just continues to lurk quietly within.

10 ways anger may be adversely affecting your health

1. Digestive problems
2. Insomnia
3. High blood pressure
4. Eczema
5. Impaired immune system
6. Increased stroke risk
7. Tension headaches and migraines
8. Impaired lung capacity  
9. Cortisol release and weight gain; inflammation
10.  Poor circulation as arteries constrict

 
So what are we to do? The world isn't getting any less annoying and the effects of anger aren't going anywhere soon...

17 healthy ways to channel anger

1. Practice some deep breathing. This. Really. Works!!!!
   
2. Go for a walk and let off some steam. Anger is just energy, so burn it off!
3. Don’t take things personally. Most of the time people do things for reasons that really have nothing to do with you.
   
4. Talk it out with your support system to gain a new perspective.
5. Get into problem-solving mode.
6. Assert yourself and communicate in the moment when you feel slighted.
7. Exercise. This increases your stress threshold, meaning it’ll take more to stress you out! It can also release some those feel-good chemicals to improve your mood.
8. Anticipate triggers and how you’ll deal with them.
9. Release, don't repress. Express your emotions freely and then let go.
10. Engage your sense of humor and laugh things off whenever you can.
    
11. Explore the root cause of your underlying anger
12. Have more patience and develop resilience with coping skills.
13. Shift your perspective by considering others’ point of view.
    
14. Remove the anonymity factor (imagine it’s your grandpa in that slow car in front of you!).
15. Get rid of the words “always” and “never”, as this causes black or white thinking.
    
16. Stop using the word “should” as this raises expectations of how you think people must act (which is rarely how they actually do act!).
    
17. Distract yourself with leisure and by getting “in the zone” regularly.

 
Takeaways
If you’ve been following AndiamoFit then you already know that being healthy is about more than just eating well and exercising. When taking a holistic approach, being healthy means addressing anything in our lives that has the potential to have adverse affects on our health.

Remember that being angry is beneficial because it can prompt action. There’s an evolutionary benefit to getting angry. But you can only reap the benefits of anger if you have a healthy channel for it. It only works if it is managed in a controlled way. Uncontrolled anger can wreak havoc on your health.
 
So the next time you’re stuck behind a pair of blockaders, take a deep breath and try some of these techniques to help stay calm. Then be sure to return here to give me some pointers on how to stay cool behind blockaders!

But in all seriousness, learn how to manage anger. You don't have to learn this for the benefit of the target of your rage, learn it for yourself.