The Little Blue Book

1. Know yourself: recognise your warning signs You know yourself best. You know when you’re on the edge – when you feel frustration building (and your hands and neck muscles tighten). There will be other signs, and you will recognise them too. So, when you get the warning, intervene, and pull your emotions into check. It’s ‘you’ remember; and you’re in charge of yourself. You may remember your Mum telling you that “when you get angry, stop, take a step back and count slowly to ten”. It’s still good advice. 2. Get on top of ‘the lizard brain’ The anger response, and with it the release of the hormones adrenalin and cortisol from the adrenal glands, comes from the more primitive parts of the brain. Getting on top of it means calming the intense emotional arousal that drives it. So, pause, close your eyes a moment, and make a rational decision to take control. Take a deep breath and walk outside. Once there, stretch your arms out, breathe deeply and exhale slowly and completely. Repeat until you feel the heart rate slowing and the muscles in your neck relaxing. Spend a moment listening to your thoughts, shake the angry ones out into the open, then remind yourself that there is another way of dealing with this – you have a choice, and it is yours to make. Choose the better way. 3. De-stress If anger is a problem, you may often find yourself “at the end of your rope” – nuthin’ left! The secret, well, it’s no secret, is in knowing how to de-stress… and choosing to do it. How you manage your anger is the test of the person. Flying off the handle is not managing it; it’s giving control to the anger. But you can take control by cutting it off, by managing your stress and stress responses before the anger takes over. No-one likes living with stress (and no-one likes living with someone who is always angry), so, get your stress sorted. Get some help. Talk to your GP or health professional; they can direct you to counselling services or to meditation and mindfulness training to help you manage stress, as well as manage your emotions. (Finding a quiet place to ‘stop’ – just for 10 or 15 minutes every day – to chill, to close your eyes and look inward, will be a start.) 4. Laugh loud and laugh lots “Stop laughing, this is serious!” Those immortal words perfectly capture the resilience of spirit behind the uniquely human capacity to laugh in the face of adversity. The ability to find humour in any situation is such a beautiful part of what it means to be human. “Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” Mark Twain; The Chronicle of Young Satan Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts SOME TIPS TO MANAGE ANGER COVID-19: The Challenge 48