While anger management tips can help you keep from blowing up, the best anger management strategy is to begin anger management when you’re not inflated!
Most experts agree that in order to learn long-term anger management techniques, you first need to recognize the “triggers” that set off your anger. But, what do you do if you’re angry most of the time?

An excellent beginning anger management strategy is a small change in your environment. Even a 15–20 minutes environment change, can make a big change in your perspective.

Anger Management Strategy #1: Changing Your Environment

1. If you usually spend your day indoors, make a point to spend some personal time outdoors. Putter in your yard or take a walk. The fresh air will do you good, both physically and mentally.
2. If you work mostly outdoors, spend some personal, private time indoors. Go home, put your feet up and andrelax.
3. If you spend the day in physical labor, give yourself a “quiet time”. Sit on a park bench and watch the world go by or sit in your favorite chair and let your tired muscles relax.
4. If you spend most of your day ina sit-down job, get those lethargic muscles moving! After work, take some time to walk, run, exercise to feel a surge of renewed energy in both mind and body!
5. If you spend your day in noise, make sure your “quiet time” is quiet. Give yourself a chance to calm down and clear the chaos from your thoughts.
6. If you spend your day where the silence is deafening, go home and pump up the volume! Listen to the radio, play a CD, watch an half-hour of television. Get your mind off your problems!

Anger Management Strategy #2: Learn to Recognize Your Anger Activators

When you’re reasonably calm, take a few minutes to examine recent times when your anger flared. Jot them down. Don’t relive each; just look for what triggered your anger – your anger activators. What started you simmering and when did you boil over? What effect did your temper flares have on those around you and most importantly, you? What resulted from your anger? Let this be the beginning of your anger log or anger diary.

Each day, “log” occurrences of your anger and their triggers. You’ll likely find that many of the same things are making you see red everyday.

For instance, a lot of folks start each day confronted by the harsh, irritating beeping of an alarm clock. If you’re one of them, consider changing its tune. Set a clock radio to music instead of alarm or purchase an alarm that starts with a quiet pulse and slowly increases in intensity.

Anger Management Strategy #3: The Serenity Prayer

You may have heard the platitude, “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.” However, to paraphrase Abe Lincoln:

“You can solve all of the problems some of the time and some of the problems all of the time, but you can’t solve all of the problems all of the time. ‘

For instance, when you experience the loss of a family member, the anger you may feel is a natural part of grieving. No matter what you do, you can’t solve the problem, but you can learn to control and resolve your anger.

“God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The Courage to change the things we can,
And the Wisdom to know the difference.”

For decades, Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs have used the Serenity Prayer to help their members cope with their problems. Even if you don’t believe in a higher power, you can still use this simple message as an anger management strategy to help control your anger.

Controlling your temper isn’t always easy. But these effective anger management techniques will help give you the upper hand.

If your outbursts, rages or bullying are negatively affecting relationships with family, friends, co-workers and even complete strangers, it’s time to change the way you express your anger. You can take steps on your own to improve your anger management.

Anger management tips

Here are some anger management tips to help get your anger under control:

• Take a “time out.” Although it may seem cliche, counting to 10 before reacting, or leaving the situation altogether, really can defuse your temper.
• Do something physically exerting. Physical activity can provide an outlet for your emotions, especially if you’re about to erupt. Go for a brisk walk or a run, swim, lift weights or shoot baskets.
• Find ways to calm and soothe yourself. Practice deep-breathing exercises, visualize a relaxing scene, or repeat a calming word or phrase to yourself, such as “take it easy.” You can also listen to music, paint, journal or do yoga.
• Once you’re calm, express your anger as soon as possible so that you aren’t left stewing. If you simply can’t express your anger in a controlled manner to the person who angered you, try talking to a family member, friend, counselor or another trusted person.
• Think carefully before you say anything so that you don’t end up saying something you’ll regret. Write a script and rehearse it so that you can stick to the issues.
• Work with the person who angered you to identify solutions to the situation.
• Use “I” statements when describing the problem to avoid criticizing or placing blame. For instance, say “I’m upset you didn’t help with the housework this evening,” instead of, “You should have helped with the housework.” To do otherwise will likely upset the other person and escalate tensions.
• Don’t hold a grudge. Forgive the other person. It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to behave exactly as you want.
• Use humor to release tensions, such as imagining yourself or the other person in silly situations. Don’t use sarcasm, though — it’s just another form of unhealthy expression.
• Keep an anger log to identify the kinds of situations that set you off and to monitor your reactions.
• Practice relaxation skills. Learning skills to relax and de-stress can also help control your temper when it may flare up.

Most of us experience anger at one time or another. Others may get angry with us, justifiably or not. We may become angry at others, sometimes with very good reason, sometimes not. One thing is for sure, it is not a pleasant experience.

We cannot always reason with those that are bitter towards us and sometimes we may need to accept that it exists. To counteract this with retaliation is something that needs careful consideration.

“Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.” - Marcus Antonius

Perhaps we are guilty of hostility more than we would like to be. Greater interaction with people should reduce these feelings. Less anger should result in more confidence and less stress.

Is a discussion possible and is it worthwhile? A few words and an exchange of viewpoints might result in one or both sides having a change in attitude. Try to see another point of view no matter how unreasonable it appears.

Consider how you are feeling. It is common, perhaps good advice, to let anger be expressed, to not hold it inside. My personal experience is that sometimes I have regretted this because I was wrong or over reacted. Sometimes the anger still lingered. Avoiding anger in the first place, through conciliation or acceptance, can result in feeling better all around.

Hatred is a prolonged anger towards a fellow human. There are various forms of hatred, motivated in different ways, and mostly without cause. Prejudice, jealousy, gossip, bullying are hard to deal with. This is where friends can be a great help in trying to understand these harmful actions. They can offer comfort and foresight. Be a friend.

“Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.” - Ben Franklin (1706-1790)