Anxiety can cause anger and anger can cause anxiety. How can we work on each to find peace and calm in our lives? Here are a few ideas to try to preemptively reduce anger and anxiety, as well as use anger in a useful, as opposed to destructive way. Anger is an important emotion. It lets us and others know our boundaries. It also fuels action and supports self-worth. Yet, unrestrained, anger can ruin lives, relationships and careers. There are definitely healthy ways to handle anger. Here are a few.
Planning Ahead
Life is stressful when you don’t plan ahead. You’re scrambling to find x, y, z, which makes you late to work, which gets you in trouble with the boss, which causes you to look on LinkedIn for new jobs all afternoon, which means you didn’t finish the project, which means tomorrow is effed too. Don’t do it to yourself! Spend one day a week (or a few minutes a day, whatever your preference), to plan ahead.
Ideas? Organize your desk. Clean one area of your house. Go grocery shopping. Grab a few snacks and drinks you can snag for rushed mornings. Get your coffee ready the night before. Pick out your outfit too. Take a shower at night. Whatever works for you, try to get even those five minute tasks out the way. Watch your rushed morning routine make way to actual space. See yourself pulling into the office early… with smiles to greet you! (Worth a try!)
Staying Away From Negative People
Why, why oh why do you still reach out to Susan when all she does is constantly complain and ask you for favors, never asking you how you’re doing? “Susan, you have a place in my life, but I’m moving you to the bottom shelf.” We don’t need to have dramatic break-ups with our friends, but we can reduce our interaction with them, or schedule our times together on low-stress days.
Negative people will suck our time, our energy and put negative thoughts in our head. It should be simple to realize who these negative people are and slowly distance ourselves, but it’s not.It can be a little complicated sometimes. Just artfully and politely start making moves the other direction. And, know that it doesn’t have to be permanent. By your proactive actions alone, you might see positive results from the other person noticing it a bit too. Give it time and circle back when you feel ready, maybe that person has changed, or maybe they need to stay on the bottom shelf (where you can see them, but they can’t always see you.)
Water, Rest, Sweat, Nutrition, Stretch
You’re heard and read it over and over and over again. These are the vital pieces to a healthy life. When you focus on getting each of these, every single day, you’ll notice also that you have a more calm demeanor. Your body needs a precise concoction every day of nutrients. Give the body what the body needs. Your mind is a squishy organ. It cannot run on caffeine and willpower alone. Try to make sure you check these five things off every day and see how you feel! You hopefully will notice reduced anxiety, which in turn, creates reduced anger.
“Smile, breathe, and go slowly.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
