3 Tips to Control Your Anger

Have you ever gotten so angry that you could feel your "blood boiling"? How did you behave? What did you say? Were you able to walk away from the situation with your dignity in tact?

I would venture to say that most of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced a state of intense anger. The blood pressure was high; the heart rate was erratic; and thinking was cloudy or nonexistent - all signs that we had allowed something or someone to highly upset us. This intense state of emotion also called for us to calm ourselves down and gain control of our emotions before we did or said something that we would later regret.

It's okay to experience anger some time. However, to live in a state of anger all the time - that's a problem. Having been someone that had to learn how to live my life beyond a state of constant anger, I can honestly say that being angry all the time sucks the life out of you!

If you find that you battle with anger more often than you would like, try these techniques to help you move beyond the emotions to a healthier state of living:

1. Take a timeout - it's important that you remove yourself from the situation until you can calm down and clearly discuss it later;

2. Feed your mind calming mental pictures - whether you use affirmations, personal mantras, scriptures, or visualization techniques, allow your mind to relax upon calming words and/or images that will help to re-center your thinking; and

3. Monitor your mood - the foods you eat, length of time you sleep and frequency in which you exercise can harm or help your mood. High moods generally keep anger at bay; however, low moods will typically allow anger to linger longer. Therefore, when your mood is low, it's best to eat, sleep and exercise appropriately.

Again, experiencing anger is okay. However, you want to make sure that you learn to control excessive anger before it controls you.