5 Facts About Anger

Anger - we all have experience with this feeling in one form or another. Although it is one of our basic emotions, it is often the one we have the most difficulty with. Here are 5 interesting facts about anger:

1. Anger is meant to protect us. As part of our survival brain, anger triggers our 'fight-or-flight' response. This allows us to defend ourselves, as anger allows us to have an immediate response to threats of danger.

2. Anger is a secondary emotion. We can't feel anger without feeling something else first - that might be frustration, but it can also be fear, guilt, sadness, hurt, betrayal. We tend to skip over the more vulnerable emotion, straight to anger.

3. Anger is only in our control when we can slow it down. The moment you move to aggression (yelling, stomping off, hitting something), you no longer have control of it. It may be 'protecting' you, but it is no longer serving you.

4. Bitterness, resentment and hostility are all forms of repressed anger. When anger goes unresolved, it becomes a stone in our heart.

5. Anger is useful. Whenever we feel angry about something, we can also be curious. "Why am I feeling angry about this? What am I also feeling? How do I want to address it? What do I need to do to resolve this feeling?" As soon as we begin to ask ourselves these questions, we begin to process not only the feeling of anger, but the feelings that are also beneath it.

Photo by Cyrus Chew on Unsplash