Anger can be a devastating emotion affecting everyone around you. Anger can range from irritability to explosive rage. Getting a handle on your anger can improve your relationships and help you become overall happier. Here are some steps to help improve your anger in just one week. 

Insight

The first thing to do is to gain insight into your anger. First write down how you know you’re angry. Some helpful prompts are: Where do you feel anger in your body? How does your thinking change? How does your communication change? Also, be sure to ask others that have experienced your anger on what it looks like.

Triggers

The next thing to do is to identify triggers. In a separate area write down your most obvious triggers. Then for one week at the end of each day write down any situations that made you feel any sort of anger, irritability, or rage. As you work through this exercise keep an eye out for patterns. Having a professional or a neutral party look at what you wrote may help even further. 

Coping Skills

The final step is to identify coping skills. In a separate area write down the most obvious things you like to do that provide good or relaxing feelings (eg. listening to music, going for a walk, meditation,…). Ask others what their coping skills are to help gain some new ideas. Set an alarm each day during the week to remind yourself to practice coping skills for at least 15 minutes.

How This Helps

When you sit down and write out your insights and triggers this will help you gain awareness of being angry in the moment. You will start to have more in the moment awareness of your anger like if a notification went off on your phone. Awareness is the first goal because once you are aware you have power to change your course of action. Identifying triggers will help you anticipate anger, develop a plan, and also give you more awareness. Finally Identifying coping skills will give you actionable things you can do once you are angry or anticipating being angry. If you find yourself struggling with identifying what to write down or implementing these strategies a trained professional can help significantly.