Читать книгу Managing Anger: Simple Steps to Dealing with Frustration and Threat - Gael Lindenfield, Gael Lindenfield - Страница 15

Yes, anger does have the potential for great physical power and this can be directed negatively both outwards and inwards. This is why we need to be fully aware of its role in relation to our bodies so that we have greater control of its physical effects.

The understandable concern we have in our society about violence and the association which, rightly or wrongly, people make between anger and this problem, means that it is often difficult for us to remember the two main positive functions of anger’s physical qualities:

1 Self-protection – our bodies are aroused into a state where they can function with maximum physical energy to aid our defence in response to potential hurt. This is commonly referred to as our natural ‘fight’ response.

2 Decompression – our bodies are given a chance to release pent-up physical tension caused by over-exposure to frustration. The safe physical ventilation of anger is an effective way of helping the autonomic nervous system to switch back into its normal relaxed functioning state. This is the state we commonly describe as ‘the calm after the storm’