4 healthy ways to be angry

I believe being angry isn’t itself a bad thing. Sometimes the way we express our anger can be. When you’re dealing with loss and grief, anger can become familiar and unhealthy. This is understandable, but it's important to find some coping mechanisms when the anger comes knocking.

I want to talk about some ways we can express healthy anger.
1. Write it down!
Have you ever heard someone say that if you really need to say something to someone you should put it in a letter and just never mail it? Well, we’ve all seen how that movie ends. You know what I’m talking about, the movie where the letter accidentally gets mailed and things go horribly wrong and then eventually everything ends up okay. Writing is a way to format one’s thoughts.
This can be especially helpful in grief situations where the would be recipient of your anger might already be gone.

*Sometimes it can even be really cathartic to write it all down and then throw it away.

2. Acknowledge the anger
Call it out. Own up to it. Take a beat and admit to yourself "okay yes, I’m angry right now". This by itself is an extremely powerful way to process your anger. By admitting to yourself what the emotion is you can start to process what it is that you’re angry about. By naming the emotion, you take control over it again. Putting yourself in a position of control over your anger is positive and a great step to take towards healthy anger.


3. Get alone and get REALLY angry
Like I said, being angry isn’t bad. Taking it out on other’s is. If you can take some time alone, I would recommend letting yourself just really feel it. Feel it from the top of your head to the tips of your fingers to the bottoms of your feet. Just be mad for a little bit. If you don’t do this sometimes the anger will have no choice but to come out in unexpected and dangerous ways.


4. Move your body
I don’t know about you, but if I’m seething, it can be a huge physical motivator. I can sometimes channel my anger to become endurance and I get my body moving. This works on two levels - 1. Mentally you know that you’re taking action against your anger and that’s empowering! 2. When you exert yourself your body releases endorphins which make you feel good. So when it’s all said and done, you’ve taken care of yourself and you’ve released some anger. That’s a win - win.

There are lots of ways to express anger in a healthy format. And there are lots of tools out there to help with this. But sometimes we forget that we need to take care of ourselves. So here’s your reminder for today. It’s okay to feel what you feel. Just make sure that you take care of yourself by expressing it in a healthy way and not hurting those around you.