We can explore anger in various ways with either a positive or a negative outcome. It can cause healing and productive relationships, or the complete opposite with no hope for quality relationships and optimum health. The choice is ours. Some anger is inevitable and even healthful for a time. How we process it makes for a good or bad outcome. After recognizing the cause of our anger, we must choose our response wisely. This article explores factors that should influence our response.

Anger can serve a useful purpose or it can become a noxious weed that spreads extensively to all areas of our lives unless we pull it up by the roots and destroy it. But how do we make our anger count and then eliminate its harmful effects?

Rage is an emotion that many of us deal with on a regular basis. Most people feel mild to moderately angry several times a week. Anger wears many guises: impatience, frustration, hurt, depression, and hostility to name just a few.

Anger wears many guises: impatience, frustration, hurt, depression, and hostility to name just a few. Most people feel mild to moderate anger several times a week. How do frequent bouts of anger or unresolved conflict impact our health?  A couple of examples will definitely surprise you!

Adjust Your Perspective

At a women’s conference, prime front seats were erroneously double-ticketed. Many of the ladies who had previously arranged for front seats were delegated to the back. Their unhappiness with the seating arrangements threatened to derail the positive tone of the meeting. Apologies were made but to no avail. Then the chairwoman had an idea. The next speaker was Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic, who has spent more than several decades in a wheelchair.

You have just received a letter informing you that you are way behind on your taxes, and as you’re reading that letter, the phone rings and a coworker tells you that you’re expected to make a big presentation tomorrow that you didn’t know about. Your wife is having surgery and the kids are running wild through the house. Suddenly you feel a knot in the pit of your stomach. A cold sweat starts to form between your eyebrows and you can feel every inch of your body tighten up. Your mind begins to race.

Optimism leads to a hardiness that prolongs health. The Universities of Helsinki and Turku along with the University College of London did a large observational study assessing the protective effects of an optimistic outlook on health. They found that individuals who scored high on optimism questionnaires reported fewer sick days after a major life event (severe illness or death of a spouse or family member) and recovered more quickly than those who scored low on optimism. In other words, they found that optimism can assist in coping with major negative life events more successfully.