Yoga for Anger Management

Week 1: Module 2
Understanding Anger

Learning Objectives
 To understand anger according to the western perspective

 To learn expression of anger in a good order

 To know the impact of anger at all levels of a personality

Definition of Anger
Anger is a term which all of us are very very familiar with at the same time all of
us possess it like how we possess a gene coding. There is nobody starting from
a small child to an old person who does not know the anger or the emotion called
anger. To define it precisely anger is an emotion which is characterized by
tension and hostility arising from frustration, real or imagined injury by another
or perceived injustice. It can manifest itself in behaviors designed to remove the
object of the anger or behaviors designed merely to express the emotion.

So you understand the terminology one thing is to remove the object the other
thing is to express the emotion. Sometimes out of anger we show it very
explicitly to throw away the object or to slash on the person in front of us or we
might not injure them but we might merely express the emotion by way of our
facial gestures so that they understand that we are in a very angry mood.

Expression of Anger

Most of the time anger is expressed as aggression and sometimes it allows us to

fight and defend ourselves in this case anger, a little bit of anger is in fact needed
only then we would fight or defend ourselves in certain situations which are hard
for us to otherwise overcome. Some people express anger, some people suppress
anger, some people calm down from anger and this anger arises when we are
threatened,disturbed or otherwise interrupted from a peaceful emotional
state. We might be going with a smoothflow of life and there is something which
is intruding on that peaceful state and then angerarises. Sometimes anger is
combined with jealousy, sadness or hopelessness even when we are jealous of
somebody else's success a little bit of anger would pop in. If you are sad with
something of failure or the loss of somebody and we are hopeless of life even
then anger can be an offshoot so many times anger happens as a combination with
other emotions.

There are various kinds of anger responses listed below.

Assertive: assertive response this is a healthy anger response that allows you to
upfront act and communicate about your feelings and seek a resolution. This is a
better way of expressing the emotion called anger.

Passive: Passive means the anger is internalized and which can lead to harmful
physiological affects you don't express it you keep it within yourself and that is
not affecting the person in front of you but it affects you it causes harmful
physiological effects within your own system

Passive-Aggressive: We understand from the terminology it is a combination of

expression as well as internalization. So these responses show outward
agreeability while anger is displayed indirectly so this is where many a times the
parents show the anger on to their children as displacement not able to show the
same emotion to their boss when they can't do it in their workplace they project
they displace it to an individual who are below them so this is kind of passive-
aggressive type of anger response where the response is happening there is
outward expression but not intended on that particular individual but displayed
indirectly

Aggressive: There is externalized anger and this can contribute to acts of road
rage or violence which we actually see in places where people just fight with each
other like animals so this is the way of explicit expression of anger.

Anger as an Emotion

Anger is an emotion like any other emotion like joylove, sadness, depression,
surprise, happiness. Because emotions are something which is very well
displayed in today's world everybody uses plenty of emojis. If you just open your
whatsapp you see a lot of emojis. We don't even know what those emotions
are. Previously we were only acquainted with the navarasas. Now we have 90
rasas or 900 rasas. So anger itself is an emotion which can be displayed in various
ways and no other emotion is as powerful as anger to bend the behavior of another
individual. Sometimes scolding works, sometimes a lot of anger displays works
more than love working. These days anger is much more prevalent and people
use anger as a tool to bend the behavior of another individual but one great thing
is we don't express anger instinct like animals for animals anger then yeah they
jump on you they smash you they kill you they eat you so but we don't use anger
as an instinct like animals we have repressed anger sometimes we don't show it
but it might be boiling inside you and this emotion is shown elsewhere or you
internalize it and keep it as a repressed emotion

But what is the problem with this repressed emotion because many times the
person whom you meet or speak with may not show anger and you might admire
them for their personality because they don't show anger at all. That doesn't mean
that the person is devoid of that emotion, the only good thing. If the person is not
expressing it in public ways or in a way that it hurts other people but then they
might have it as a repressed emotion and this repressed emotion would create a
ripple effect in all walks of life say relationship career education and even in the
longevity of that individual. They might end up in some kind of disorders, some
ailments, pains, and symptoms which may hamper their quality of life and put
them into some kind of chronic disorders. So, anger as an emotion if you see
superficially, it is like any other emotion but if you really get into the emotion
called anger once expressed it has a different effect once not expressed.

Effects of Anger
Anger has some effect. It is like a dual edged word where expression as well as
repression is going to give problems either to you or to others or for both. If you
see. Good effects in the sense if used correctly then:

 Anger can release the tension

 It can energize you

 It can help in effect of communication
 It can resolve some kind of hidden conflict
 It can provide new thoughts
 It can alert you to different kinds of threats and it gives you some
information to introspect.

These days you would have come across something called rage rooms. There
are many cities where rage rooms are very recently opened. It is a room or like a
restaurant where a person can go pay and display his anger to any objects which
is placed there like a menu card you might start with a starter and you might end
with a dessert you can use different dishes as per your choice like that when you
go to a rage room you can choose to punch you can choose to smash you can
choose to break the objects so you pay and you can release your tension by
smashing thrashing breaking punching or whatever kind of emotional expression
of anger you require.

This is because people are not able to express their anger onto their higher
officials or their parents or children. We choose a place to display anger though
this may not be the right way to manage anger but there are places because people
started recognizing that anger should be expressed in some way that does not
harm people. Because even suppression of anger is a problem so if
inappropriately anger is expressed it would create following effects:

 It would disrupt one's life

 It can control one's thoughts

 It can ruin your relationship
 It can cause pain both psychologically and physically
 It can cause health problems
 It can cause emotional disturbances
 It will leave a negative impression of you in the society

These are some of the most important bad effects of anger not only at the level of
physical and psychological. It even has an impact on the behavioral and cognitive
component of an individual. When anger is what you are and how are you you
must really know that when anger is there within me how is my body reacting
how am i reacting how is my mind working.

Impacts of Anger

If you see physically, you have plenty of symptoms which can arise when you
have the emotion called anger within you. Some of them are listed below.

 Guilt

 Frustration
 Moodiness
 Dry mouth
 Cold hands
 Heavy face
 Nightmares
 Depression
 Nervousness
 Sweaty palms
 Easily irritable
 Nauseous feeling
 Exaggerated fears
 Sleep disturbances
 Increased frustration
 Lot of muscle tension
 Jaw, neck and back pain
 Lot of social withdrawal
 Reduction in productivity
 Lot of personality change
 Diminished concentration
 Upper respiratory infections
 Lot of tardiness behavior wise
 Feeling helpless and hopeless
 Lot of worrying on metal level
 Prone to panic attacks and anxiety
 Explosive and impulsive in nature
 Loss of appetite or increased appetite
 Prone to more accidents & addictions
 Impaired memory or even forgetfulness
 Changes in breathing pattern like shallow breathing
 Cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, ulcers and migraine
 One emotion called anger if not displayed or expressed healthily or if it is too
much in you where you're so sensitive and just a small spark and you get
agitated. Many complications it brings into you at the level of physical mental
behavioral and cognitive dimension. Having said all these impacts, just ask
yourself is it needed to manage anger ? Do I actually show my prestige or self-
esteem to people ? Yes, sometimes it's like acting like a dictator or showing anger
may make you feel a little nice, you might feel more respected in the society or
you kind of demand respect from the society that might boost your self-
esteem. But the self-esteem boost alone is something which you have a placebo
effect but internally it causes a lot of problem which we actually saw right now
at the level of physical mental cognitive and behavioral level and in the society
you would be like a black sheep you would be a person who would be spoken
behind the back there would be a lot of negative comments upon you and as a
personality you're going not going to be a pro-social human.

Anger Management
Is it a need to manage anger and the options for you are yes no and maybe what
would you tick into it is mandatory that we should check the boxes because it is
needed to manage anger in the right way. If not anger would be a pain to you,
pain to the near ones and pain to the society. So we should manage it. How do
we manage it, telling that please don't get angry, it is a problem for you and
society will work out by taking some pills, NO.

Whenever you feel a lot of anger towards your children, your workplace, your
bosses, your teachers, your students, popping in some pills then anger subsides
it's not going to work out or change the entire situation so that you're not
angry. You live in a place where everything is as comfortable as for you and you
have a cakewalk in your life that is going to be possible? Can you change the
rules? Can you change the norms? Can you change your targets? Can you change
your children? Can you change your parents, no, you cannot change the situation
there. Then how do we manage it?

We need to manage anger at the four levels:

 Physical or body level

 Psychological or mind level

 Behavioral or soul level
 Cognitive or emotional level
 Yoga is a system which acts at all the levels of your existence. It is not just
acting at the body level it acts at the existence level so you have the effect of yoga
at the body level, the mind level and the spirit level. It changes your cognition,
it changes the waves of your brain, it changes the physiological processes, it
changes your cognition so yoga is an effective tool to manage anger.

Summary
 Anger is an emotion which is characterized by tension and hostility arising
from frustration, real or imagined injury by another or perceived
injustice. It can manifest itself in behaviors designed to remove the object
of the anger or behaviors designed merely to express the emotion.

 There are various kinds of anger responses, Assertive, passive, passive-

aggressive & aggressive.
 Anger is an emotion like any other emotion like joylove, sadness,
depression, surprise, happiness. It is much more prevalent and people use
anger as a tool to bend the behavior of another individual.
 The generalized impact of anger has both good effects as well as bad
effects. People choose a place to display anger and it may not be the right
way to manage anger but there are places because people started
recognizing that anger should be expressed in some way that does not harm
people.

 Physical anger has plenty of symptoms which can arise when you have the
emotion called anger within you. If anger is not displayed or expressed
healthily or if it is too much in you where you're so sensitive and just a
small spark and you get agitated. Many complications it brings into you at
the level of physical mental behavioral and cognitive dimension.

Yoga is a system which acts at all the levels of your existence. It's not just
acting at the body level it acts at the existence level so you have the effect of
yoga at the body level, the mind level and the spirit level.