Negative emotions don’t have to bring negative results. They often will, perhaps, but each time you can utilize a negative emotion for good, you get a double whammy of avoiding further negativity and gaining something positive. If you angry, here’s how to channel your anger for positive results.
Use Anger and Frustration As Fuel
Anger is an extremely powerful feeling to have. And there’s no shortage of things to be angry about in this world or in a typical life. But anger management is a known class because how you channel anger has a major impact on yourself and the world.
It’s not a good idea to rely on anger and seek it out to make progress. That’s not healthy. But if you find yourself angry, you might as well do what you can to diffuse it in a productive way. How to channel your anger comes down to accept.
How to Channel Your Anger? Don’t Deny It
As a general rule, I think it’s best to “accept” an emotion instead of avoiding it. When it comes to anger, we see that people who deny it and bottle it up inside tend to explode later in undesirable ways. When you accept anger and allow yourself to feel it, you can express it in safe(r) ways. Here are two of my favorites:
Work out: Anger is one of the best pre-workouts there is! The adrenaline and rage can make for great weightlifting sessions. Or perhaps you can go for an angry run or dance.
Fix the problem causing your anger: One time, I was at a theme park, and I checked my book sales for the day. They were very low, and I got angry, because I like book sales. I left the park at once and got to work! I used the anger as fuel to work harder and get better book sales.
Anger isn’t a fun feeling, but it can be used as fuel. The best part is that when you use anger as fuel, it does tend to “burn off” to some extent. I always feel better after an angry workout.
Use Sadness for Processing and Planning
When a loved one dies, we get sad. When we break up with a partner, we get sad. When the Detroit Lions lose to a 66 yard field goal following a no-call delay of game on the previous play, we get sad (and mad).
Sadness manifests in somewhat of an opposite way as anger. Anger makes us clench our fists, but sadness makes us crawl into bed. In the spirit of “going with” the emotion, we can use this lower-energy downtime to process our lives and plan our next steps.
Crippling sadness can be a gift if you are constantly on the move. Some live their lives thoughtlessly, jumping from distraction to distraction. When something upsets that cycle, like deep sadness, it can help us see a different path.
When something makes us very sad, it almost always triggers self-reflection. Sadness is pain, and pain alerts us to possible problems. In the case of a loved one dying, their death reminds us of our own mortality and fragility. It’s a good time to think about your life direction.
Sadness isn’t always of the serious and deep variety. I am emotionally attached to the Detroit Lions, which I understand is sad on multiple levels. After I attended their loss to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and then watched their former QB Matthew Stafford thrive on a new team, I got sad. I reflected on and questioned my fandom of 30 fruitless years and if I wanted to continue or bandwagon fan to a more successful team. I decided to continue being a fan, but something about going through that process put my mind and fandom in a better space. Sadness brought clarity about why I was a fan.
When you’re sad, use it to sort through life’s deeper questions and gain clarity about whatever is troubling you.
