Anger Management Activities and Exercise To Help Calm You

Anger Management Activities and Exercise To Help Calm You

There are lots of ways that you can learn to manage your anger, even when it seems like a totally overwhelming emotion. If you have anger management issues, you can get help through anger management activities and exercise programs that have been created especially to help you discover various outlets for your anger, and help you to calm down in an appropriate way.

Teenagers in particular will benefit from these kinds of anger management classes. Adolescence is a time when kids are starting to make some huge leaps in emotional maturity. While this is going on, their emotions can seem to be unmanageable and they can't seem to figure out what to do with them. Therefore, they often end up responding in anger to just about every emotion they experience.

That's why teens will benefit greatly from anger management activities and exercise plans that will teach them an appropriate outlet for their energy. It will also help them to become more focused so that they can learn to deconstruct their problems into manageable compartments. This helps them discover the emotions that lie below the anger and manage them appropriately.

A popular and effective type of anger management activity and exercise program is yoga. This practice teaches you to perform a variety of postures that focus on methods of relaxation and deep breathing techniques. These skills will teach you to focus your thoughts, release negative energy and calm yourself.

These are valuable skills that can be carried over into your everyday life. If you feel your anger starting to rise, just breathe deeply and concentrate on relaxing in order to overcome the emotion. You can also try repeating words and phrases that will help you calm down. Something like, "It's all good," or whatever works for you.

Another approach to anger management is to alter negative thoughts that you might be voicing in your head. Turn them into funny images and thoughts, which will replace the feelings of anger. For example, if you tend to think of someone as a jerk whenever you are angry with them, translate that word into a ridiculous mental image, like maybe a stick of beef jerky. This will give you a little bit of time and distance to help you calm down. The more ridiculous the imagery, the easier it will be to lose your anger.

Anger management activities and exercises can also be more cognitive in nature. This involves a process of retraining your thoughts so that you can rationally assess the situation and possible solutions before speaking your mind.



Posted by Kim

Anger Management Strategies for Parents

Eight Anger Management Strategies that Parents Can Teach Their Teens


As teenagers grow up, they face increased pressure and more responsibilities. Coping with these new challenges can be extremely difficult, and many teens express their frustration or stress as anger. Through open communication and modeling appropriate reactions, parents can help their teenagers to manage this anger and respond to it in a healthy, productive way.

Evaluate the logic of the reaction. Talk though a situation to help the teen decide if the situation is really something worth getting angry about. This is also a great opportunity to brainstorm other ways to handle the situation effectively and appropriately. The key here is to turn the anger into something constructive.
Help teens to identify anger triggers. Once they know what makes them angry, they can find ways to avoid them or to build a better tolerance of them. Keeping an anger journal can be a useful technique for identifying triggers; a teen who keeps an anger journal can look back over past entries, to look at behavior trends.
Reiterate that it is acceptable for teens to remove themselves from extremely frustrating situations. It takes considerable self control for a teen to walk away from something that makes him or her angry, and this self control is a skill that parents can model. Strategies like counting to ten or going to a "safe place" can be useful. It is also important for a parent to inform teachers if a child is using these strategies.
Encourage time management skills. A common stressor for teens is being overwhelmed with work or responsibilities. One method is to create a calendar for the entire family. Each family member uses his or her own color to write down due dates, appointments, and social activities. This kind of calendar helps teens to visualize how much time they actually have to complete different tasks, and it aids parents in keeping abreast of often-hectic schedules.
Incorporate regular exercise in the teen's day. This could be through an organized sport, or through a daily family bike ride. Aside from being part of a healthy lifestyle, daily exercise also provides teens a physical outlet for anger or aggression.
Expand your family's "emotional vocabulary." Often teens will say they feel only mad or angry. Introduce other words like "disappointed," "upset," or "embarrassed," and explain their different meanings. Teens can learn to react differently when they feel disappointed or embarrassed, than they do when they are angry.
Emphasize empathy. Considering an issue from another person's perspective can be a momentous task for an angry teenager. However, once the teen has talked through the situation, it is useful to ask how the other people involved might have felt, or why they may have acted as they did. Encouraging the examination of an issue from all angles will help a teen to remain more objective in frustrating situations.
Seek innovative forms of self expression. Many hospitals and treatment centers offer art therapy programs. Other teenagers may benefit from writing poetry, or from learning to play a musical instrument. These artistic endeavors give teens yet another outlet, and give them the opportunity to share their work with others.








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Anger Management Strategies for Parents