YOGA FOR ANGER MANAGEMENT

July 4, 2023 Guest User

RELEASE NEGATIVE ENERGY

Anger is a natural human emotion. It can be used in ways that can benefit us, but it's also important to maintain control over it when necessary. Yoga has many benefits for anger management - not just calming down an angry person, but also teaching them how to deal with their anger in the future. Yoga and spirituality practices are especially helpful for people who struggle with managing their emotions. This article will explore these benefits of yoga and offer examples of people who have found success practicing yoga for anger management!

How to reduce anger

There are many ways that people can reduce and manage anger, including:

Engaging in routine exercise and outdoor activities
Doing deep breathing exercises when you feel angry to relax
Getting plenty of rest each night, at least eight hours a day
Drinking green tea to reduce inflammation in the body
Eating healthy meals regularly throughout the day. Fruits and vegetables are especially helpful for reducing blood pressure levels
Doing non-strenuous, slow yoga-like exercises to relax your muscles and make you feel much calmer

Each of these methods can be used daily to reduce and manage anger during the day. There are many great apps that you can download for your phone, too! These include guided meditations and breathing exercises that will help calm down any angry feelings you have throughout the day.

Can yoga help with anger issues?

According to research published in Frontiers In Psychology, yoga can help you manage your anger and decrease the impulses that surround it.

Yoga has long been recognised for its ability to help us improve our cognitive function. Yoga research has shown that it can assist us in overcoming the fight-or-flight response and shifting from our amygdala (fight-or-flight response) to our prefrontal cortex (regulating emotions and problem-solving), allowing us to think more clearly. Regular yoga practice can train your brain to stop and calm itself, which can help you manage your anger.

While yoga is not a panacea for all of life's problems, including anger issues; it may be able to provide some relief from the impulses that surround anger management issues. People who are willing to take up regular yoga practice might find themselves better equipped to keep their cool in tough situations.

What are some benefits of yoga?

Yoga has a wide range of advantages for people of all ages. Not only is the practice effective at reducing stress, but it may also help you lose weight, gain strength and muscle, improve work performance, and even improve your sex life.

Several of the postures and positions in yoga may help to relax your muscles, making it a useful tool for emotional management and frustration. Yoga is an excellent method to release any anger, anxiety, or frustration you might be feeling throughout the day.

Yoga is also great at improving your posture, breathing, blood circulation, and digestion, all of which can be negatively impacted by the stress that anger puts on the body and the nervous system.

To learn more about the benefits of yoga, head over to our Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Yoga for Men.

What exercises control anger?

When you think of exercise to manage and control anger, or an exercise you might do when you're angry in the heat of the moment, you might think of going for a run or hitting the gym to relieve pent-up frustration and take it out on your muscles. Although these are great strategies and have many benefits, yoga can also be a great way to manage anger, maybe even better than a gym session.

Yoga is less likely to cause you pain than hitting the gym or taking a run, and because yoga focuses on breathing exercises that centre your mind and body, you can release stress before it even has time to build up into an overwhelming feeling of rage. Practicing yoga both to manage anger before it arises, and once you are in the throws of it, is beneficial, as you are gently forced to reflect inwards, focus, and listen to what is going on inside your mind and body.

Pranayama for anger management

Swami Randev, a famous Indian yoga guru and businessman, swears by the practice of Pranayama for beating frustration and coping with anger. He stresses the importance of deep breathing and breath control, which in turn controls and helps to strengthen emotional regulation.

When you get angry or stressed, your sympathetic nervous system is activated. Breathing becomes more sharp and shallow, your blood pressure and heart rate increase, and your sympathetic nervous system puts unnecessary pressure on your body. Deep breathing, breath retention, and control utilising a slow and steady breath ratio activate the parasympathetic nervous system and reduces anxiety levels. Long, deep breaths can also help us relax by managing our stress reactions and lowering anxiety, fear, racing thoughts, a rapid heart rate, and shallow chest breathing.

Meditation for anger management

According to recent research in the journal - Consciousness and Cognition, one session of meditation alone may help your body's reaction to rage and anger.

Even in individuals who had never practiced meditation, just one session reduced the physical signs of rage, according to the new research. After only 20 minutes of meditation, individuals who had never practiced meditation previously showed a much calmer and more relaxed physical reaction when asked to re-experience anger.

Anger is a complicated emotion, and for many people, it's a source of embarrassment or guilt if they can't keep their tempers in check. We've all experienced anger of one sort or another, whether it's a simmering irritation that boils over, a long-held resentment finally released, or an injustice eating away at the core. Many successful and well-renowned men have discovered that meditation aids them in controlling their anger and have implemented regular practice into their lives, including Joe Rogan, Russel Brand, Timothy Ferris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill Gates.

Insight Timer has a great list of meditations for anger management, tension, and stress available on their mobile app.

What does yoga say about anger?

Buddhist philosophy says that anger is a mental defilement, just like desire or greed. It's an unwholesome state of mind, which does nothing but cause suffering.

Yoga says that anger is an energy, just like fear or passion. It's a mental state of high arousal and tension, which often leads to aggression. We all experience this from time to time – it could be at home with our family members, in the workplace by being treated unfairly, on the road when someone cuts us off in traffic, or in a relationship when we feel betrayed.

However, anger isn't what makes us feel better – it's often the cause of much unhappiness and regret later on. In yoga philosophy, this is called Satya or false belief. It falsely tells you that there is something to be angry about, creating unnecessary mental tension within yourself which not only affects your mental well-being but also affects the people around you.

Yoga practitioners are encouraged to understand that their anger is an adaptation of their mind which has arisen due to misunderstanding or misperception, and if not dealt with properly can prove disastrous for them as well as those around them.

Which yoga is best for anger?

There are many types and styles of yoga that could be beneficial for reducing and coping with anger, such as traditional hatha yoga, which focuses on physical postures and exercises; hot yoga, which can be great for those who like to break a sweat and feel challenged, or vinyasa flow, which can help you get out of your head by focussing on the flow, movement, and challenge of the poses.

If you are looking for a style of yoga where you can slow down, ground, and focus on your inner space and the source of your emotions, yin or traditional Sivananda could be a great place to start.

What are the best yoga poses for anger?

Although many yoga poses will be beneficial for reducing and managing anger, here are some poses that I use when I need a quick fix to calm me down when I’m in the moment:

Wide-Legged Child’s pose. This pose helps me ground myself, take notice of my body, and find a space of awareness to prepare me for my practice. I like to experiment in this pose by swaying my hips side to side and slowly reaching my fingertips further forward.
Bananasana is one of our favourite Yin yoga poses, as it really facilitates the connection between your mind and body. This pose will help you stretch out any tension in your side body, and you’ll be able to feel an amazing expansion in your ribcage when you breathe into the pose.
Dragon Pose is a group of Yin poses that follow a flow and ensure you get the most out of your time on the mat. Although you can just stick to Dragon Pose, if you’re looking for an extra challenge and a way to get rid of some negative energy, try moving through the variations.
Forward fold is the perfect pose for even the most frustrating of moments. When you’re feeling hot under the collar, that forward fold helps us come back to centre, lowers blood pressure, and helps you regain your inner calm.
Cobra pose is another favourite, as often when angry or stressed, tension goes to your spine. Cobra pose will help you put gentle and healing pressure on your back, open up through the chest, and push out any unwanted feelings.
Savasana. This pose is great for the end of a sequence, to relax and re-set your mind and body. Savasana is a perfect pose for lying meditation and pranayama.

How do I let go of anger in yoga?

Yoga is a great tool used by many to effectively let go of and manage anger and frustration. Instead of stifling or repressing your anger, yoga helps you sit with it, feel and experience it, process it, and then let it go freely. Through both the asanas and breath-work, yoga facilitates the processing of emotions by reflecting and viewing them internally, moving through them, and using the anger to strengthen and ground you into your practice, and then watch it dissipate when it is ready. Yoga has helped many people change their relationship with a range of emotions, including anger, and see it from a different perspective.

Anger, like trauma, often gets stored in the body. When we continually repress our feelings, we create toxicity in our bodies, brains, and hearts. Our organs, muscles, and tissues are all filled with unprocessed emotional energy. Physical therapies and practices like yoga, help move stagnant energy through the body, helping practitioners release it in an effective and lasting way. If you’re interested in learning more about anger, trauma, and how they get stored in the body, you might be interested in reading The Body Keeps The Score- Bessel Van Der Kolk.

Anger is something we all experience. It’s a normal part of life, and a powerful tool if used effectively. It’s something we could all learn how to control better, and master so that it serves us instead of controlling us. Yoga is an incredible way to strengthen our authority over our most powerful emotion and its sway on our lives. Paired with meditation and pranayama, or practiced on its own, yoga is something everyone who wants to tame their inner fire should include in their daily routine.

Original blog - Taylah Soutter for Mens Yoga Journal. Taylah is a mental health support worker, beginner’s yin yoga teacher, and nature lover.