1. Slow down!
2. Don’t take things personally.
3. Express your anger in a positive way, through activism or political action.
4. Don’t act out, act up: channel your anger into political action and activism.
5. Don’t take it out on your friends and loved ones; they are not to blame for the situation that makes you angry.
6. Find a support group where you can talk about your feelings of anger and injustice with others who share your concerns and understand what you are going through — find a therapist* (see below).
7. Find a therapist — preferably one with whom you share a common world view — to help you explore the roots of your anger and to help you find constructive ways of dealing with it.*
8. Remind yourself that the people who are making you mad are often “acting out” their own frustrations about things that have nothing to do with you!
9. Acknowledge that the problems that make you angry are not going to be solved easily or quickly, but that working on them will make the situation better over time (even if only marginally so).
10. Accept that some things are beyond your control, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t many other
Acting out is a way of responding to situations and events, usually through some form of violence. Acting out is a way of not dealing with problems. If you act out, you may feel good for awhile but eventually you will find that the situation is worse than before, or that it has not been resolved at all.
Anger is normal and healthy. Anger can be an appropriate response when we are hurt or frustrated. Acting out, however, uses anger as a way to avoid other emotions that may be more difficult to deal with like fear, guilt or sadness.
Acting Out Tips:
1) Learn about your triggers. What causes you to act out? What are your anger warning signs?
2) Listen to your body. Notice how your body reacts when you get angry. Can you feel it in your stomach? Does your heart beat faster? Does your head start to pound?
3) What do you tell yourself when you get angry? Do you say things like “I can’t stand this,” or “I’m going crazy” or “How could he do this?”
4) Take a time-out when you feel yourself getting angry or upset. Take a few deep breaths and tell yourself that it is OK to calm down first before
1. Stop and Think
Before you go any further, spend a few minutes thinking about why you are angry and what you are hoping to achieve by acting out. Anger is often a secondary emotion that we use to cover up sad, scared or lonely feelings. Realise that you can only really take control once you have identified the real reason for your anger i.e. true emotions.
2. Identify Your Triggers
Try to work out what makes you act out so that you can avoid or prepare for it happening again. You may find it helpful to keep a diary of when, where and why it happens so that you can identify patterns and triggers so that you can avoid them in the future.
3. Assert Yourself
Instead of acting out, practice being assertive by expressing how you feel in an open, honest and direct way while maintaining respect for yourself and others.
4. Listen To Others
When someone says something that upsets or annoys you, instead of acting out stop yourself and think about what they may be trying to say to you. Remember that the way they say something may be more important than what they are saying itself (e.g., tone of voice). Also, everyone has bad days so don’t take things
1. If you’re upset about something, don’t act it out. At first this will be hard, but in the end it’s better for you and everyone else to walk away from a situation that makes you angry.
2. If you can’t walk away, count to ten. You’ll have time to cool down and if anyone is saying anything worth listening to, they won’t have gone anywhere.
3. If counting isn’t enough, take deep breaths and try to calm yourself down.
4. Close your eyes, picture yourself on a beach somewhere with the waves washing over your feet. Now imagine that all the negative feelings are being washed away with each wave as they break. By the time you open your eyes, you’ll feel refreshed and ready to face whatever made you angry before.
5. If you still feel angry and want to hit something or someone, find a punching bag or pillow and let it all out there instead of on an actual person! It’s safer for everyone involved and its a lot easier to explain a broken punching bag than a broken nose or black eye!
6. If nothing else works, try screaming into a pillow or into the shower as loud as you can until you’re exhausted and
We are going through one of the most dangerous periods in the history of our country, perhaps in the history of the world.
The problem is that it is also a period where Americans are becoming more and more cynical about government, about politics and about democracy in general.
There is a growing feeling in this country that we cannot change things; that no matter what we do, nothing really happens; that there is nothing we can do to make things better.
And so the question becomes: how do you keep people interested enough to act? How do you get people to get involved? How do you keep people interested in something that seems so far removed from their everyday lives?
One of the best ways to accomplish this is to help them understand that they are not alone. That they are part of a larger community. They are part of a larger movement. They have a common cause with other people all across this country and all across the world.
They may feel isolated right now, but they are not isolated. They have allies wherever they go. And when they make their presence felt, those allies will come out of the woodwork to support them.
Here are twenty tips for keeping your activism alive and well:
Anger is a normal, healthy emotion. In fact, anger plays an important role in our lives by letting us know when things are not right and need to be changed.
However, when anger is mismanaged or acted out in unhealthy ways it can lead to violence, criminal behavior, damaged relationships, and physical health problems. Understanding what causes your anger, how it affects you and others, and how to act on it appropriately is the first step in managing your anger in positive ways.
1. Recognize the signs of anger. Tell-tale signs that you are angry include: clenched fists or jaw; headaches; tightness in your chest; rapid breathing; flushed face; fatigue; stomach upsets; tight muscles (neck, shoulders) and restlessness.
2. Identify the sources of your anger. Anger can stem from external sources such as work/school or family issues or from internal sources such as unresolved past hurts or learned behaviors from childhood experiences.
3. Set limits for yourself about what you will tolerate from others and about your own behavior. For example: “I will leave in 15 minutes if everyone is still yelling.” Or: “I will wait until I calm down before responding to this situation.”
4. Take time out to calm down
Anger is a normal human emotion. We all get angry at times, and we all experience anger in different ways. When you feel a strong physical or emotional reaction to something, this is often your anger telling you that something is wrong. Anger becomes a problem when it is felt too strongly or for too long, and when it leads you to act in ways that can be harmful to yourself or others.
Anger is an emotion that we are all born with. However, we do not all have the same amount of anger and we do not all show our anger in the same way. The way in which anger affects us depends on what causes us to get angry, how we think about our anger and the way we deal with our anger. Some people get angry easily and often, while others only get angry once in a blue moon! Some people show their anger by shouting and throwing things, while others hide their anger inside themselves until they explode!
People who get angry frequently or who show their anger in unhealthy ways can cause problems for themselves and for those around them at home, school, work or socially. It can also damage their physical health if it is not managed effectively.
