5 Healthy Ways to Release Built-up Anger

It’s not healthy to bottle your emotions, especially anger. The worst part is that it doesn’t take much to push someone off the edge of patience – a snide remark from a colleague or traffic can cause even the most tamed person to explode in a tirade of cursing and arm-flailing.

Although controlling one’s emotions is a part of growing up, there are (thankfully) several ways we can healthily release pent-up anger without going overboard. Here’s a list of different ways to release anger in a healthy, stable manner.

Taking deep breaths

It may sound cliché but doing breathing exercises when on edge can help calm you down. Ideally, you’ll want to do this in an area away from loud noises in order to maintain concentration. Find a place where you can sit comfortably, relax your neck and shoulders, and breathe deeply through your nose. Do this up to 5 minutes a day as many times as you like.

Visualizing

If you’re able to take your mind to a happier place far away from a frustrating situation, you should absolutely exercise this skill whenever you feel anger building up. When wrestling with tension, try and create a mental picture in your mind to calm yourself down. This can be an imaginary place with beer-serving unicorns or a real place you’ve visited… with beer-serving unicorns. Getting lost in your own imagination can help ease stress.

Mindfully moving

Sitting still can cause you to become even more anxious. That’s why it’s important to keep your body moving by doing easy exercises in a comfortable area. Try doing yoga stretches or other calming exercises to bring you back from the brink of pissed-the-hell-off. You might even find dancing to be therapeutic.

Expressing frustration

Releasing anger in outbursts won’t do you or your drywall any favors, but this doesn’t mean you can’t express your frustrations to a neutral party. If you have friends or family that’s happy to lend an ear, feel free to talk about what made you angry. Hey, they might even be able to provide some insight into the situation.

Defusing with humor

Finding humor in an otherwise intense moment can keep you well-balanced. We don’t mean simply laughing the matter off, but rather taking a look at them in a lighthearted way that can calm you down. So the next time you feel white-hot rage building in your chest, try to imagine how the situation would look from a passerby. By doing this, you may be able to find just how minor the issue is and how you may have been on the edge of blowing it out of proportion.