Learn How to Appreciate Your Anger in Individual Counseling

If you are looking to start individual counseling, you might not feel happy, grateful feelings in regards to your emotions. You might feel like your emotions are too big or you have too many of them. Or you might think that you don’t feel things enough.

Emotions can seem confusing, overwhelming, and foreign, and it can be isolating to try to process them by yourself. And one of the most “difficult” emotions you may be dealing with is anger. Today, you will learn about some new ways to look at “difficult” emotions like anger. Then, you will learn how individual counseling can help you learn to embrace your emotions.

Exploring Emotions

Let’s focus on an emotion that get a very bad rep: anger. Odds are, you have had some run ins with anger during your life. Maybe you have struggled to manage your temper. Or maybe you have a loved one who frequently feels angry and frustrated. (Related article: More About Anger). You might think anger is bad and should always be avoided… but what if your anger could be turned into something productive?

Let’s start by exploring how you physically feel when you experience anger. What kind of feelings do you feel in your body? What are the first physical signs you notice when you are becoming angry? Maybe your palms get sweaty, or your hands start to shake. Maybe you feel like your face is hot and you breathe faster. Practice noticing how anger feels and “looks” on you when you are angry. This information can help us a little later. (Related article: How to be Emotionally Healthy). 

Anger as a Motivator

Next, try to recall thoughts you have as you experience anger. I would bet that you probably begin to think of varying “calls to action” when you feel angry. Anger is a motivator and can act as an engine, when it is used in a productive way. Feelings of anger fuel protests and provide fuel for movers and shakers. Anger gets you up and out of your seat and pushes you to act.

Anger can also help you spot injustices in your life. If something is unfair or uneven, odds are you start to feel frustration and anger. When acted upon appropriately and in a productive way, anger can be a powerful battery that moves you forward and encourages confident action. (Related article: Building Your Emotional Capacity). 

Now, recall the physical feelings you had as you experienced anger and reflect on them. Do some of your physical experiences feel similar to how you feel before you have something big you need to accomplish? Does the anger almost feel like excitement? Anger doesn’t have to be suffocating, stifling, and scary. (Related article: Coping with Difficult Emotions). Instead, anger can be seen from a different light; anger is a protector, a motivator, and a radar for things that need a change. 

Seeing difficult and problematic emotions, like anger, in a new light can help you to practice self compassion and acceptance for your feelings (Related Article: Anger Is A Secondary Emotion). And when you can accept how you feel, you can feel more free to act for yourself. Individual counseling can also help you to learn how to see anger and other emotions in a new, fresh light, and see the gifts and benefits of anger. 

Start individual counseling in Orem, South Jordan, or Spanish Fork, or via Telehealth for anyone in Utah.

Written by Lauren Adkins