Emotions: The Flip Side of Anger

Anger is a weird emotion and we may sometimes not even recognize that we are angry; I know it happens to me quite often. Some times we just have to stop and realize what we are really feeling to know what caused it and why are acting this way. Anger has long been noted as a very hostile and negative emotion. What you may learn from this post may pleasantly surprise you. Having the knowledge you’re about to discover may help you turn this commonly negative war mongering emotion to your best motivator. Anyways… lets look more a bit into anger, how its caused and what it can do for us!

Anger occurs when we enter a situation where we may feel undermined. Our brain will then release a conglomerate of chemical, more specifically a release of hormones as we discussed in early articles. When we get angry your hypothalamus releases oxytocin, vasopressin and a few more hormones thus causing your pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic which then causes your adrenal cortex to release corticosteroids thus creating your body to feel angry. Anyway enough with the science stuff…

During my life I managed to recognize if people cared for me or not simply by how they argues. When or if they loved and care for you the person would fight a lot more, if the relationship was weak the other would fight less, it was an indicator to me that sometimes you may have to pick up the slack a bit [also I wish I actually paid attentions to my emotions more but I’ll have some exercises in a few articles on how to do this]. In this sense anger reasserts one self worth and reaffirms the importance of the welfare of not only one person but also the relationship as a whole.

Other times in work settings, or even politics when using this emotion the right way anger can get you what you really want. It often gives the upper hand. When a person gets frustrated it often leads to anger and this is simply because anger motivates us. It takes away our sense of safety and practicality while boosting confidence and optimism. This boost in confidence and lack of your own safety helps us fight for what is important to us. I don’t know about you I always fight for what I truly do believe in, I am in some ways an anger person.

Anger seems to get a negative connotation due to people losing complete control of their body and acting out in strange ways. Please don’t get this confused with being enraged. Your complete loss of emotional control deteriorates and triggers behavior that may be completely against your cultural norms and or care for your self and others.

With out anger the world would be a pretty ugly place. Your employment standards will be much lower; your health care system may not even exist! Your government will be corrupt, okay, more corrupt and so much more. Anger fuels our social progress from civil rights to equality to justice and so much more! Without anger and the added confidence you will never be able to speak up in relationships so the problem would never come to light. If the problem doesn’t come to light your relationship will slowly eat away and it may even lead you to be more depressed than before.

Anger is okay in some amounts but please use it to your benefit. Don’t get it stereotyped with being enraged. It’s okay to speak up. Use it wisely and with a rational thought process and it could help better you and the world.

Source(s):
University of Jerusalem
Yale University
Matthew Hudson- Author of 7 Laws of Thinking
Psychology Today