The Importance of Cooling Your Anger

by Ram 

Fricka Approaches in Anger by Arthur Rackham

Anger is one of the most common traits exhibited by humans. A majority of us display anger to degrees that range from mild irritation, frustration, and temper all the way up to uncontrollable rage. Anger can arise in response to different situations, including but not limited to unjust treatment, not getting what you want, being cut off while driving, and criticism, among others. Anger is an emotional alarm that tells the individual something is not correct. However, more often than not, the anger we experience gets provoked by far less consequential factors. Everyone experiences anger to some degree at one time or another. Psychologists believe that anger is a secondary emotion tailgating primary emotions like fear or sadness. Fear and/or sadness makes an individual vulnerable, helpless, and subdued, and to avoid these feelings, the individual subconsciously shifts into an anger mode as it provides a surge of energy and creates a “sense of control and power” in the face of vulnerability and insecurity. So you let out your anger by yelling, shouting, or arguing. You snap, you use judgmental words, your lips quiver, you perspire, especially on your forehead and skull, but it does not get any better. In fact, everything feels worse with no clear way to repair the damage. 

The problem is not the anger itself; it is what we do harboring that emotion. While having some “sense of control” is correlated with greater emotional wellbeing, excessive desire for control only leads to suffering, as it’s impossible to always be in control. And if the anger persists or if it gets provoked very often, it can be hazardous to health. Research from several diverse groups, including health professionals, behavioral scientists, psychologists, and others indicates that chronic anger can trigger potentially deadly heart rhythms in certain vulnerable people. In one of the landmark studies Anger and ventricular arrhythmias, Dr. Rachel Lampert and her team from Yale University show in all different ways that when you put a group of people under a stressor that sudden death is likely to increase. 

Dr Lampert and her colleagues studied 62 patients with heart disease and implantable heart defibrillators that can detect dangerous heart rhythms or arrhythmias and deliver an electrical shock to restore a normal heartbeat. Subjects took part in an exercise in which they recounted a recent angry episode while Lampert's team performed a T-Wave Alternans test, which measures electrical instability in the heart. When these patients recalled all the angry episodes, it increased the electrical instability in the patients. Next, the researchers followed patients for three years to see which patients later had a cardiac arrest and needed a shock from their implantable defibrillator. The people who had the highest anger-induced electrical instability were 10 times more likely than everyone else to have an arrhythmia in follow-up. According to the researchers, the study suggests that anger can be deadly, at least for people who are already vulnerable to electrical disturbance in the heart. 

“When we are angry, not only do we spew out negativity to someone else, but our own body chemistry changes, and these changes can be harmful to our health” — James S. Brooks & Peter Anselmof, Ayurvedic Secrets to Longevity & Total Health 

Anger triggers increased platelet activation and thrombosis, resulting in unwanted, pathological, and life-threatening clot formation. Anger also increases vulnerability to illnesses, compromises the immune system, increases lipid levels, exacerbates pain, and produces vasoconstriction of narrowed arteries. Anger has also been associated with chronic overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. The increased sympathetic activity has been shown to result in increased blood pressure and heart rate, and alterations of ventricular function. In addition anger triggers the release of free fatty acids into the bloodstream, and elevates the levels of circulating catecholamines and corticosteroids, all of which ultimately trigger heart disease. 

Furthermore, according to a study from Iowa State University researchers, anger might increase the risk of dying early. The study involved more than 1,300 men who were followed for nearly 40 years. The men had an average age of 30 years at the start of the study. Those who agreed that they got angry easily had an increased risk of dying earlier, compared to those in the least angry group. Even after accounting for other factors associated with mortality, the association of anger with early death still remained strong. 

While there are several anger management techniques that will help to have a meaningful life, I would like to emphasize the yogic method for management of anger. Pranayama techniques, supported inverted poses, restorative yoga, focused relaxation, and meditation techniques (see Stress Management for When You're Stressed) all help to curb anger and achieve calmness. While these practices do not cure a person of anger, it allows you to see and react to anger differently. You will not only have the capacity to transcend the anger process but you will not evoke the same physical and emotional reactions that are commonly seen in a person who does not use these practices. Awareness to the thought and its flow, and awareness to anger arising inside can have remedial effects. And all this can be helpful in the journey to the center. 

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