Feeling Angry? 3 Things You Can Do Now to Reduce Anger

Let’s start of the bat here by saying that everyone gets angry.

Everyone feels that rush of emotion, that sense of high energy that floods your body with norepinephrine and adrenaline.

We all use and suppress it to varying degrees. It’s most problematic depending based on the behavior and reaction it elicits – for example, when someone punches a wall or explodes on a loved one when feeling angry.

Let’s be clear that it’s not the emotion, it’s the behavior or action in response that we need to be mindful of.

But “Dr. Ruiz, I don’t like feeling angry,” you might be thinking.

The two most common reasons I’ve learned why most don’t like feeling the emotions of anger is this – 1) you feel like you are out of control or 2) feeling angry is against your idea of “being nice.”

For most people, they are able to diffuse their anger, minimize collateral damage and have functioning relationships. This is a sign of competency and control of anger, so let’s take a moment to acknowledge this.

It’s a neurobiological imperative that we have access to this energy because it’s actually quite useful when FELT and used appropriately.

The thing is, anger is a high energy emotion that is driven to create action and behaviors that are in line for protection, drawing boundaries AND FEEDING.

Yes, you got it.

Feeding.

If you don’t believe me, anyone who has experienced low blood sugar will know that there is a link between aggression and feeling that pang of “hangriness.”

The more uncontrolled your blood sugars are, the more likely you are going to elicit the hormones of stress, cortisol, along with other hormones like Norepinpehrine.  You see, the hormones for hunger like ghrelin also activate our sympathetic system. It makes sense, since in order to feed, you actually need to be awake, alert and ready to catch something, aggressive enough in order to kill and eat it. Compare this with the hormone oxytocin, which when released creates bonding, and you’re more apt to care and protect something that you’ve bonded to. Our emotions are guided by hormones more than you would think.

So what do you need to do to reduce angry outbursts?

The first is by starting to regulate your blood sugar. You can do this through a few ways: eating protein regularly throughout the day (unless you have a medical reason to avoid protein), avoiding high sugar foods which can cause you to crash FAST, avoiding stimulants like coffee or keeping it to a minimum and avoiding alcohol. This is the most important since you have no SHOT at regulating anger if your blood sugar is all over the place (#fact).

(Let me say this again for the people in the back - BLOOD SUGAR IS AN IMPORTANT FOUNDATION IN EMOTIONAL REGULATION)

When your blood sugar is better regulated, ask yourself what am I feeling vulnerable about? Anger is elicited when we are triggered of being hurt, or needing protection. We only want to protect when we are feeling vulnerable. The fastest way to discover this is by asking this question: “Why do I feel hurt?” What isn’t fair to me about what just happened?”

The next question you can ask yourself is “what boundaries do I then need to draw?” How is this situation making me feel vulnerable?” This will allow you to start incorporating tango ble ways to reduce your vulnerability and the need to protect by creating a structure for yourself where your nervous system can feel safe. An example of a boundary is: “next time someone brings up a triggering topic, I should politely excuse myself or have them change the topic.”

If this resonated with you, please like, share and follow this blog – “Reclaiming Joy.” Sharing not only helps others, it helps us get the word out!

If you’d like to learn more about Nutrition as a way to regulate your emotions, join our Trauma Informed Nutrition course on sale now for $29 for a limited time only! Use discount code “Nutrition” at check out.