13 Top Anger Management Techniques For Work And Wellness

Anger can harm you as well as people around you, especially at work. This is when anger management comes to play. It helps suppress wrath by developing an antidote to positive emotions.

Anger is a fiery but natural emotion. It only triggers when something goes wrong, like you are stuck in traffic and getting late for a meeting or when your boss dumps all his anger on you.

Workplace anger can do potential harm to an organization and its employees. It can cause serious health issues like stress, depression, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

Anger management is a constructive step towards the improvement of employee well-being. Also, it contributes to more desirable and promotable work culture.

What is Anger Management?

Everything can be taken from a man but the last of human freedoms – the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances, to choose one's way.
- Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning.

Anger is a completely natural and even healthy feeling. However, anger may be troublesome if it leads to aggressiveness, outbursts, or even violent altercations. Some common reasons for anger issues are, Workplace Unhappiness, Unachievable Goals, Feeling Disrespected by others, Relationship Problems, Health Issues, Inability to Control Emotions, etc.

Thus it is crucial to deal with it constructively since excessive anger can harm your health and your relationships with coworkers and family.

Anger management is the process of unlearning the signs that makes you angry. Anger is a common human emotion, and anger management helps you know how to keep it under control. The Stoic philosopher Seneca described anger as 'the most hideous and frenzied of all the emotions.'

Remaining calm and managing anger does not involve holding it in or avoiding associated feelings but resolving them.

Why do we need Anger Management at work?

According to a statistics, 45% of employees frequently lose their cool at work. 53% of employees have been victims of workplace bullying. 65% of employees communicate their anger over the phone, 26% in messages, and 9% in person.

The implementation of anger management at work is therefore very much crucial today. As anger can negatively affect the workplace environment. It also leaves a negative impression on the employees' minds.

According to Bond University , professor of management Cynthia Fisher's study called "Emotions at Work: What Do People Feel, and How Should We Measure It?"
The negative emotions experienced at work include:

• Frustration or irritation.
• Worry or nervousness.
• Anger or aggravation.
• Dislike.
• Disappointment or unhappiness.

Therefore, HR can help their employees get rid of such ups and downs by implementing better employee health and well-being plans.

Also Read: 10 Awesome Lifestyle Choices For Employees To Elevate Their Work-Life

13 Anger Management Techniques You must Practice

Let's take Freud's theories of emotion as an example which he saw based on a hydraulic model: when pressure builds, it must be released. But, the question remains, how do you get rid of anger?
Here are few amazing techniques that help you deal with anger at work:

1. Building Emotional Resilience

Emotional resilience is a trait worth developing today. It refers to one's ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises. Developing emotional resilience means mastering over negative emotions like anger. Also, it does not allow you to get overwhelmed by passive problems.

With high emotional resilience, one can always attain success at work. You can cultivate the ability to retaliate in any adverse situation with decisive actions. As it will let go of your anger and resentment towards someone.
Resilience has five pillars:

• Self-awareness
• Mindfulness
• Self-care
• Positive relationships
• Purpose

By strengthening these pillars, you can channel your emotions, reasoning, and manage anger at work.

2. Mindfulness Meditation

One way of overcoming anger is by using reasoning and analysis to investigate the cause of irritation and unlearn it. You can nurture patience and perseverance with the help of mindfulness meditation, which will reduce your anger issues.

For example, imagine a situation in which someone close to you loses their temper, how they react when they lose total control over their mental composure, creating negative energy. Sometimes they might end up physically hurting themselves or the other. Visualizing such a situation will help you understand what damage anger can cause and up to what extent.

Therefore, practicing mindfulness meditation will let your mind remain on the resolutions set by the mind and not get defeated by anger. Mindfulness meditation will help you develop determination; stay calm, and peacefully carry out work.

Also Read: Mindfulness Meditation: Why To Practice At Work?

3. Workplace Yoga

Only staying breathing makes you want to live a hundred years.
- Japanese proverb.

Yoga specifically bestows calmness by regulating the endocrine system.
The methods of yoga help manage anger in better ways. It regulates adrenaline and cortisol levels and ups the neurotransmitters in the brain.

As you become angry, your breathing becomes shorter and faster. Reverse the process by taking a few slow and deep breaths through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

The breathwork technique will help you reduce your furiousness and calm down in such moments. It is an essential part of yoga and a regular wellness routine.

Practicing yoga or breathwork at the workplace can significantly reduce your anger and improve your mood. Whenever anger or restlessness strikes, try keeping it out of your space.

Check out these 7 office yoga poses to calm your mind and help you stay fit and healthy.

4. Reading as an Anger Management Technique

Reading can be a long-term solution to your anger management technique. It is an intellectual wellness activity that every employee must cultivate. Moreover, it's based on a holistic approach.

How can you control your anger with your reading skills?

Reading acts as a resistance in the mind to space out anger, distortions, and hatred. It ignites the mind and soul with creativity and imagination. It shuts the door to unhealthy thoughts or actions. It comes with many benefits including, improving communication between co-workers, critical thinking abilities, etc.

Related: 47 Unique Stress Management Activities for Employees

5. Emphasizing on Positive Work Culture

Every workplace must adopt strategies to build a positive work culture. Job stress, job dissatisfaction, and anxiety disorders cost employers billions of dollars each year in health care expenses. Anger also results in an increase in employee's passive-aggressive actions.

Acknowledging emotions in the workplace is essential. The best way to reduce anger in the workplace is by adopting a comprehensive, systematic, and continuous approach.

A positive workplace culture looks into employees' health and wellness. Every employee is an important asset to the organization. Therefore, taking care of employees' mental health and wellness is the key to creating a positive work culture.

6. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a well-established short-term therapy that helps individuals change thought processes, beliefs, and attitudes that bring out irrational behaviors. It allows people to reduce stress, depression, anger, and grief.

It focuses on solving emotional challenges by providing simpler solutions to build a better life. With these techniques, learn how to identify and change those destructive behavioral patterns that negatively impact on your work and wellness.

The CBT technique helps you to not only reduce anger but also:

• Identify problems or issues in your regular life.
• Make you aware of negative thinking and how it can impact your life.
• Reconcile unproductive thoughts and reshape it.
• It helps you alter the way you sense certain situations.
• Allows you to learn new behaviors and put them into practice.
• Help you develop healthy emotion.
• It encourages you to think better, act better and stay well.

7. Cultivating Empathy

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own.
- Henry Ford.

Empathy decreases aggression. Adopting an empathetic, understanding approach and admitting to your mistakes is a remarkable quality at work. With such a quality, you can move past any moment of rage.
Planting the seeds for empathy in the workplace will enhance employee relationships. Also, it will increase trust, confidence, and cooperation among them.

Empathy builds respect and good feelings by eliminating negative judgments. It creates a better work environment. But reduced empathy in a workplace can increase social challenges at work.

8. Positive Thinking

You are alone responsible for what you think!

Positive thinking is key to overcoming negative thinking. It gives you the potential to look up to everyone, encourage and help them. Without a positive attitude in the workplace, our actions will become uncontrollable.

Fostering positive thoughts will help you;

• Create a positive environment
• Reduce stress and anger
• Increase productivity
• Make you more energetic
• Show your leadership capabilities
• Improve decision-making process
• Improve retention
• Motivate co-workers

9. Take a break or Head-out to an Open Space

Sometimes it is essential to slow down your thoughts, take a break and head out to open space. Anger can act as a force to delay work and other schedules. It creates a kind of pessimistic energy that forces you to be dismissive and indecisive at work.

It is better to avoid the workspace and get some fresh air in such critical moments. Doing that will help you remain focused, reduce stress and anxiety at work.

Physical activity can help you calm down and minimize your anger. Go for a walk or engage in your favorite sport. Anything that gets you moving is healthy for your mind and body.

Besides, the offices should be clean or biophilic in design. It will create an upbeat vibe and keep employees in good mood.

10. Listen to Calming Music

So, you know managing your anger is very important because you cannot choose right and wrong when you're angry. And you often end up making the wrong decision.

Besides, chronic anger may lead to mental issues such as increased anxiety, insomnia, depression, brain fog, and even elevated stress.

Anger isn't a planned process; it can trigger at any moment. But, you can always divert your mind by listening to some calm music. It will also help you soothe your mind and keep you relaxed.

Calm music creates a kind of energy that can transform it from negative to positive.

While in the office, you can plug in your earphones for 10 mins and switch to a calming playlist. So, whenever you feel your anger or some issue is demeaning your productivity, Try out this playlist !

11. Journaling

Scribbling down your thoughts is one way to keep anger under control. It makes a person expressive and creative. Have you encountered situations where you put all your anger on a person and even said more but unintentionally?

Anger sometimes results in ruining relationships, whether personal or professional.

In order to avoid such future encounters, journaling can be helpful. It is better to put out all your anger in your journal than on the person. And, once you are done jotting down, you can go to that person and talk without holding any negative feelings.

Journalling is one of the best things every employee must do to improve work and wellness.

12. Practicing Compassion

Anger is a type of emotion; if you leave them unchecked, they tend to escalate. The feeling of anger arises from discontentment in mind. But, cultivating kindness and compassion can bring inner contentment, which may help you keep your anger at bay.

So, as a preventive step, developing an inner state of calmness, patience, tolerance, and happiness is an effective way to reduce anger. Cultivating them will help you sustain at work and maintain a presence of mind.

13. Anger Management Diet

It was believed that mental clarity and mental toughness are related to the nature of one's diet. Some foods can help you manage your anger. Eating healthy is not a new lifestyle; it is an ancient technique to keep the soul and body functioning properly. It is not just related to staying fit but staying well, both mentally and physically.

Here are some things that you can add to your anger management diet:

• Keep up with a plate of fruits and green vegetables every day.
• Keep yourself hydrated.
• Try vegan diet.
• Gluten-Free Snacks.
• Take dopamine-building foods like fish, poultry, eggs, and leafy greens.

HR can also;

• Provide employees with healthy snacks or fruits like bananas. The vitamin B and Potassium present in bananas help calm you down.
• Get a coffee machine for employees.

HR can introduce Vantage Fit, a one-stop employee wellness solution that can help employees keep track of their food and water intake and count the green scores. Vantage Fit gives your employees the advantage of being in total control of their health and achieving their fitness goals.

Conclusion

Anger management techniques are very much effective in today's world. Although anger is a complex human emotion, it can still be controlled. Taming the negative outburst of emotions for your mental, physical, and professional well-being is crucial.

Bringing about specific changes in the workplace is necessary for the 21st century. Employees enjoy working in a place where overall wellness is given priority. Identifying one's mental and behavioral health must be the prime factor in an organization to achieve long-term success goals.

Therefore, HR can appropriately deal with anger with the given techniques and measures for employee work and wellness.