Have you ever been told to blow off steam when you're angry, maybe by going for a run, hitting a punching bag, or scream me into a pillow? Well, it turns out that might not be the best advice. A recent meta-analysis of over 154 studies and over 10,000 participants tried to find out if that really works when it comes to managing anger. The researchers looked at two broad categories of activities. Those that decrease physiological arousal, like deep breathing, meditation, and yoga. And those that increase arousal, like venting to a friend, jogging, or hitting stuff. what they found. Activities that decrease arousal significantly decreased feelings of anger. Things like mindfulness and deep breathing exercises were consistently effective across all the different age groups and cultures and genders. These methods help turn down the heat by calming your body's arousal systems, like thinking of your grandma doing yoga. On the flip side, activities that increase arousal didn't help reduce anger at all, with an exception. And in fact, some high-intensity repetitive activities like jogging might actually make you feel angrier. But sports like soccer, or volleyball where you're having fun while doing physical activity do help to lower. It may seem silly, but your brain and body have a two-way connection. And sometimes it's a bit dumb. So if there's something mentally making you angry, then if you raise your physical arousal level by getting your heart rate up, it gets funneled back into a feedback loop with that anger. Whereas in a different context, that same physiological arousal signal of a fast heartbeat could actually get interpreted by your mind as a good thing, like, I'm excited or aroused. But we can use that same dumb connection by constantly, calming the body to calm the mind. So next time you're fuming, instead of lacing up those running shoes or punching a pillow, try taking some deep breaths, practicing mindfulness, doing a bit of yoga, or maybe another fun method I'll talk about in the next video. So what do you think? Would you actually give this a try or are you going to stick to the venting methods? Let me know in the comment.
Additional notes
⚠️ Warning: Doing this will be hard! I don’t get angry very easily, but the times I can remember when I was really fuming my first instinct was to hit the treadmill or weights and really try to take my anger out on them! These days… I try to do some meditative dishes while listening to an audiobook 🤓 #science #MentalHealth #MentalHealthMatters #MentalHealthAwareness #WHOFides #angermanagement
References
- A meta-analytic review of anger management activities that increase or decrease arousal: What fuels or douses rage? DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2024.102414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2024.102414