Anger is complex.

Albeit intense, overwhelming, and at times (for some) debilitating, it is a signal our body uses to send messages between our head and heart. It is a natural response to any trigger, and until you recognize it as such, has the potential to drive you into thoughts and behavior that aren’t reflective of your true character.

Whether it’s injustice, betrayal, or sheer frustration that ignites you inside, remember two things about anger:

1. Anger is not a real emotion, it is a feeling that indicates there’s something beneath the surface that needs tending to.
2. It is a completely normal part of being a human being.

As I mentioned in this month’s Self-Care Drip email newsletter, we all experience things that trigger us that feel mentally constricting from time to time. This is unavoidable and subject to countless external factors that are out of our control. However, what we do have full control and autonomy over is whether or not we let it fumble the bag.

Get out of your own way

Instead of succumbing to the will of your anger, an alternative way to deal with it is to channel it into something productive.

Here are six productive things you can do with anger:

1) Name it to tame it

Try personifying your anger. Describe it in the context of a book or movie character. I like to use Scar from Disney’s original Lion King movie as an easy go-to example, but feel free to get creative.

This exercise talks you down off the ledge anger wants you to jump off of. By acknowledging there is a valid, understandable reason for the hurt behind your anger, you make space for the de-escalation process to naturally unfold. For example, in The Lion King, Scar carries his own unhealed trauma and resentment towards his favored brother, Mufasa, from their childhood and is consumed with vengeful feelings that have festered over decades and eventually lead him into destructive behavior that includes betrayal, manipulation, and even murder.

By identifying the originating source of your anger, you refocus your attention from how you feel to the trauma underneath waiting to be healed. With this in mind, you can take a proactive approach to respond to your trigger rather than an irrational, reactive one.

2) Give it an escape route

Writing about an infuriating situation before acting on it is probably one of the quickest, most effective and accessible ways to be productive with your anger. Doing a quick brain dump to check-in with yourself helps you process your emotions organically.

You can do it traditionally with a pen and paper, in bullet point format, with a note-taking app on your phone or computer, or through other modern technology features like voice memos or voice-to-text.

Explain what triggered you, how it made you feel, and what you can or would do differently now that you’ve successfully distanced yourself from it.

3) Walk it off

Exercise is a great way to release pent-up anger. Take a walk around the block, try an online yoga tutorial in the comfort of your own living room, or hit up your favorite elliptical at the gym.

Physical activity also helps reduce tension and stress that make your thoughts feel foggy and tangled. Just a little bit of fresh air can work wonders for gaining clarity.

4) Volunteer

Anger puts a barrier between us and our readiness to receive blessings. By volunteering, we are taking the initiative to bring all we have to be grateful to the forefront, helping us to put why we’re really upset into perspective.

The act of volunteering has a similar effect as reciting daily affirmations- it serves as a guidepost to point us back in the right direction when we’re distracted by consuming emotion by reminding us who we are, what values we lend our time and energy to, and the communities our life’s purpose serves.

5) Grow into healthy communication

How can you develop “I” statements and non-judgmental language out of your mean and nasty thoughts when angry?

If you can read between the lines and center the visual personification of your anger from the exercise in point #1, these moments can be pivotal opportunities to put what you’re learning about healthy communication into actual practice.

Over time, implementing this as regularly as a response to anger will improve the strength of your discipline and self-control. Over time, asserting boundaries and confronting conflict seems less and less daunting, and doesn’t come with such heavy doses of anxiety.

6) Make art out of your anger

If you’re an artist of any kind, sitting in anger can lead to a great potential to produce something goosebump-worthy. Whether it’s painting, writing, baking, or playing around with graphic design tools in Canva, there’s something about the creative flow that comes when you’re sitting in your truth.

“You need to be sitting in truth in order to create truth.”

– Quincy Jones, 12 Notes on Life & Creativity

Use your preferred art form or craft to work through the stages of anger until you’re able to articulate its purpose. Doing this helps you release the anger, learn from it, and leave a tangible example behind that others can follow to do the same.

The moral of the story is that anger is a normal part of daily life that most – if not all – of us struggle to build a healthy instinctive response to. Yet, by channeling it in a productive way such as any of the above suggestions, it can also be a great catalyst for positive change.

For more tools, tips, and resources to level up your self-care practice, subscribe to the Self-Care Drip 💧 monthly newsletter.