Anger Management in Action: Think Like An Optimist
Friends Jane and Anthony have very different ways of viewing the world. Jane is a pessimist (“the glass is half-empty”) while Anthony is an optimist (“the glass is half-full”). As you will see, Anthony has better anger management skills because of his optimism. Let’s compare how they think about similar life experiences: Scenario 1: A…
Anger Management In Action: Forgiveness.Let the Past Go
Thirty-two year old Elizabeth cried during her anger management class as she related how one year ago her 19-month-old girl was permanently brain-damaged as the result of medical error at the hospital in which she was delivered. She definitely had a legitimate grievance toward the hospital and the medical staff and felt that she…
Mindfulness and Anger Management
Mindfulness and Anger Management- Guest Article We all have moments when things slow down and we are suddenly very present for life. We often have this ‘tuned in’ experience when we are in nature, or it it may happen when we are highly focused on some activity, or sometimes it occurs when we are simply…
Dealing With Life Stress: Should We Use a Scale or a Broom?
This cartoon illustrates how stressful life can be, even in normal situations like family life. (By the way, if you enjoy mental health humor, visit (http://blogs.psychcentral.com/humor) for more.) In our anger management programs, we teach specific methods to handle stress as one of our anger control tools, because stress and anger are very much connected…
How To Tank Your Relationship- Lesson 2
In our last blog, we taught you Lesson 1 of how to tank your relationship: React to bad behavior by your partner in way that indicates that you think they are 100% wrong and you are 100% right. Then assume that there is only one way (your way) to view or look at the situation,…
Gratitude Skill Important For Anger Control
Learning to respond instead of react to frustration and anger triggers is anger tool #3Â in our “tool kit” of anger control strategies. An important skill to use this tool is the skill of being grateful for things in your world and in your life. It is almost impossible to be angry and grateful at…
How Positive Emotions Help with Anger
In past blogs I have spoken of a new movement in psychology called “positivity” and have discussed how it has an “undo” effect with negative emotions such as anger. Put another way, positive emotions erase the lingering traces of negative emotions. So, if we did “lose it” and get angry, a great way to repair…
Humor Is Anger Management Technique
Humor is a positive emotion that helps counter-balance anger and other negative emotions in a conflict situation. Think of a teeter-totter. On one end sit anger, resentment, irritation, and all the friends and relatives of these negative feelings. But, on the other end sit humor and other positive emotions. What will happen? The teeter-totter will…
Having Joy in life reduces anger
Forty-four year old Martha was a single mother of a thirteen year old girl (Reva) toward whom she was always feeling angry. They seemed to fight about everything, producing huge amounts of negativity in their home.Things finally got to the point that therapy was required by Family Services who had received a complaint from a…
Positivity an antidote to anger
I just came across fascinating new research by Barbara Fredrickson,Ph.D., at UNC, Chapel Hill, described in a book she published called “Positivity.’ In it, she provides much data showing that positivity can enhance relationships, work, and health and also counter-act negative emotions like anger and resentment. The unique findings in this book is not that…