Mind

Joy, A Cure for Negative Thoughts

September 8, 2020 by Bob Singhal

Thousands of years of evolution have taught that human needs are identical. We need security, support, relationships, joy, attitude, and something useful to do with our time. That’s true of any person. When you understand that simple fact about life, it forces you to take a helicopter view. It will help if you elevate your perspective on your life. When a negative thought cycle surrounds you, you have zero aspect. Your thoughts consume you. It would help if you adapt yourself to look at life in general. Not just your current situation. Look at life’s nature—it’s about motion.

Often I get distracted by a tiny thing that triggers a loop of negative thought. Have you experienced that feeling? You doubt everything about your life, job, health, or relationship before you know it. That frustrates you even more. Now, you’re getting drowned in by negative thoughts. At this point, something that popped as a small annoyance became a life problem. You feel like quitting your work or relationship. You feel as if something is working against you. And this is worth nothing.

Why do we experience this?

It’s about control. We predict life should be a fixed way. In other words, we want everything to fall in place the way we want. And we flip when it doesn’t. Loops of negative thinking often begin when something comes to an end.

Negative thinking is debilitating. The thoughts take up so much energy and are pointless most of the time. When you have a negative idea in your brain, a feeling you don’t want in your mind, ask yourself with this question, `is this useful.` The need for asking this is to put you in the driver’s seat of your mind. It puts you in control. When these negative thoughts are spinning unwanted thoughts, and you are just listening to them, you have invited them in. They are doing whatever they want to your brain. You are allowing the thoughts to empower you both mentally and physically. When you ask that question, you put your mind in a vulnerable state, vulnerable to you.

Joyscore App

What’s the solution? Where do I look to ease the uneasiness? The answer lies in Joyscore. An app that quantifies & increases joy in your life by in-app tools like the podcasts, motivational stories, guided meditation, breathing, sleep and stress reduction tools, activities, and games. The app is all about `Finding Joy.` Joy is a short but powerful word. It is desirable and inspiring, though often viewed as unattainable. We all agree that joy is more than a moment. It is a state of mind. The highest existence we can expect to achieve is a happy life. The moment you feel Joy and the moment you laugh, be happy, grateful, and change your perception of life, boost your immunity and energy. Your body chemistry changes, as well as your whole well being. You can easily find your joy and get in a joyful state of mind right now with the excellent Joyscore app.

Empowering Self

September 7, 2020 by Bob Singhal

Everyone wants to be happy in life. That means working according to your passion, being financially secure, being healthy, and having ample free time to pursue your interests. I’m satisfied with my current state of affairs, and so thus far, mission accomplished. Happiness is the ultimate objective every Human should have and should be the core of every decision. Your satisfaction will reflect on your behavior. It’s contagious, so people around you would feel it too.

The framework of goals, which is the secret to success, is essential, as they provide concentration, direction, and encouragement. They shape our dreams and allow us to stretch and develop. Despite this, many don’t organize goals because they don’t know how to configure them or understand their importance or fear failure.

One common reason for those who incubate goals but never attain them is that their objectives do not inspire them. You will likely instill more time and energy into something that will excite you. Your goals should motivate you to jump out of bed in the morning to achieve it as soon as possible.

To accomplish your goals, you must know how to anchor them correctly. Objective setting is a process that starts with careful consideration of what you want to achieve and ends with much hard work.

Empowering Self — A girl celebrating Success

Your goals give you a vision for the long term and motivation for the short term. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge and aids you organize your time and resources to make the most of your life. Taking the time through goal setting to ponder your own emotions allows you to learn more about yourself. You can make better decisions when you genuinely understand yourself. Embrace your feelings, and then question them. Use those emotions as a guidance to you in your daily actions as you work toward your goals. Here are six goal-setting tips that I recommend to help you join the 8 percent of people who achieve their goals.

Aim High, But Start Low, and Keep Going.
Don’t Let anyone Set The Goals For You.
Be Clear What Success Looks Look.
Understand Why This Goal Is Important.
Track Your Performance.
Celebrate.

To put it in another way: if you want to complete several goals at a time, be prepared to make (significant) sacrifices. The ugly truth is, most people don’t want to give up anything to accomplish a goal. When you want to get fit, you have to be willing to change your schedule and give up certain foods. End goals define outcomes where you’re unwilling to compromise — they describe what you want. Means goals, on the other hand, set one of many paths to reach your end goals.

To sum up, setting goals is the first step to achieving good objectives, representing the first step you have made towards progress. It’s when you gear up from a passive state to being involved in life. If everyone sets a goal for self-improvement, it will lead to a better society as a whole.

Setting goals and working on them contributes to happiness. Elation comes at that moment after you have touched the wall, looked up at the scoreboard, and see that you have finally accomplished the time you have worked for so long. After completing, the feeling of joy will further motivate you to set for more and bigger goals to stay on the right track. After all, life’s better when we’re happy, healthy, and successful.

Give JoyScore App a Try.

Disconnect to Connect- Social Media Detoxification

August 8, 2020 by Dikshi Gupta

Do you try to reach out for your phone to check the notifications as soon as you wake up? When you go out for a vacation, are you more concerned about capturing that one perfect picture for Instagram than enjoying it? Do you check your phone just before you are off to sleep? If your answer to these questions is Yes, Social Media Detoxification is something you should probably consider.

Social Media Detoxification is about taking some time off and refraining from using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, etc. You must have heard “Offline is a new luxury,” which implies that one should spend less time aimlessly scrolling through the feed of their social media accounts and more time on living.

Initially, social media intended to help people stay connected with their geographically dispersed friends and relatives, communicate with like-minded people or similar interests. It is a medium for self-expression, or to satisfy our curiosity. Studies have revealed that, on average, users tend to spend over 4 hours per day and over five years in their lifetime on social media.

It has certain corrosive qualities like- creates an artificial need to be available 24/7, may push you to go to extremes to chase the highest number of likes. Excessive use of social media can lead to addiction and cause a feeling of envy, which turns friendship into rivalry, and grudges and makes us feel dissatisfied with ourselves and others. It also decreases productivity, reduces sleep quality, strains eyes & causes vision problems, and migraine headaches. Social Media Detox demands turning off notifications, unfollowing people who disturb your peace, leaving uninspiring groups, uninstalling apps, minimizing per day usage, un-tagging unwanted photos, and remind yourself that social media is not reality.

Signals that you might need a Social Media Detox-

You feel anxious if you are unable to find your phone.
Your subconscious mind is preoccupied with the count of likes/comments on your posts.
You experience FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) if you do not keep checking your device.
You feel envy, depressed, or angry after spending time on social media.
You often stay up late or get up early to play on your phone.
You face trouble concentrating on one thing without having to check your phone.

Benefits of a Social Media Detox-

Social Media set out to connect people, have slowly started to tear those people apart. It keeps you glued to the screen and makes your brain addicted. Just like detoxification of your body flushes out the toxins, Social media detox flushes out your negative emotions, goals. There is a recent trend of people consciously reducing their social media use because of the following benefits:

Clears your mind-

Social Media Detox offers you a chance to clear your mind by removing the informational junk, which takes a toll on our tranquility and emotional well-being. Taking a break from social media gives you a chance to take a step back and re-evaluate what is of prime importance in your life and how you can better use your time and mental space.

More free time at your disposal-

Do you lack enough time to exercise, pursue your hobby, or clean your house? Pausing social media will help you gain almost 2-3 hours daily, which you can utilize towards improving your life. You can spend more time in person with people you care about than staying virtually-connected.

Less anxiety-

When you get rid of your mental clutter, you no longer fall prey to the worry of what makes the headlines, feeds, or trends on social media. With enough time, you will feel more positive since social media tends to exhaust our minds and make us disillusioned. It will lower your anxiety significantly over a period.

Conquer your fear of missing out (FOMO)-

One thing that stops us from social media detox is, ‘how will I know what is going on?’ Constant connectivity pops out the naturally ingrained fear of missing out on the experiences that others are having. Notifications make it even harder to stay away from constantly checking your phone out of fear that you are going to miss a relevant text or post. Detoxing is one way to set limits and reduce your fear of missing out.

Better sleep and refreshed mornings-

Immersing yourself in social media before bedtime causes insomnia and affects the quality of your sleep. Devoting less time on social media means more of everything else and improves your sleep, which in-turn energizes you. When you choose to avoid such distractions of opening a social media app after waking up, you get time to act on reading news and practice morning meditation instead of scrolling the feed.

Breaks the social comparison cycle-

We struggle with insecurity because we tend to compare our real life with other’s selectively curated life we see on social media and question our accomplishments, self-esteem, appearance, and even personality traits. Comparison and self-doubt are a thief of joy and make you believe that your life is less exciting than theirs, it becomes hard to be content, and our happiness takes a nosedive. E.g., if your peer’s work requires them to travel to various countries, but your job does not offer such an opportunity, you might feel job dissatisfaction. Our emotional responses to such posts can be strong enough to overpower our sense of logic completely. Knock off this unhealthy cycle to reconnect with the awesome things in your life.

Respect your privacy-

Whatever you do need not be seen or heard. Social media requires us to give up a lot of our privacy. You give access to your photos, contacts, location to these apps. Detoxing includes deleting these apps to facilitate you with privacy protection.

More mindfulness-

When you push yourself away from social media for a while, you will notice how mindful you become as your device usage will start bothering you. You will realize how much precious time it took away from your life, and you will no longer be a zombie scrolling through feeds and moving from one app to another.

Stops competition-

Reactions and comments measure how popular a post is, which can make you strive to outdo others. Such competitiveness is not healthy and can cause anxiety and depression. Withdraw from such competitiveness and attain peace of mind.

Improve your overall mood-

If you feel anxious, stressed out, or depressed, this is the right time to take a social media detox. It might feel weird, but your overall mood begins to improve as you stay away from these sites.

Reconnect with offline social interactions-

Have you noticed yourself connecting well with others online but find it challenging to develop a connection in person? People spending too much time on social media sites feel lonely and isolated in real life. In a world of hashtags and followers, understand the real importance of human connection, and don’t let social media pull us away from face-to-face interactions. Detoxing gives you a chance to meet, interact, and make yourselves comfortable to connect in real life.

Live in the moment-

Do you post every activity you do or every event happening in your life on social media? Some people live their life through the lens of social media without directly interacting with it. E.g., People posting pictures on the same day of their marriage, which takes you out of the moment, does not let you enjoy it and makes your experiences less memorable. Detoxing helps you to be there in the moment and appreciate it.

Better work-life balance–

Constant connectivity makes it difficult to create boundaries between your personal and work life. Even at home or on vacation, it tempts you to check your email, respond to a text from a colleague, or check in on your social media accounts. The use of these apps can create a feeling of being overburdened with work. Unplugging social media may help you establish a better work-life balance.

Steps to Unhook from Social Media and Connect with Life Again

Social Media detox need not be permanent. It should be long enough to rewire your brain and take you out of this endless cycle.

Tell people-

Inform your closed ones that you are on a detox, and you will be offline for a while. Ask for their support to call out if you are back within a few days and help you stick to it.

Identify most-used apps-

Download an app that helps you break down how much screen time you are spending on specific apps.

Set time limits on your apps.

If you face difficulty in unplugging completely, despite it hampering your productivity, consider an app to set up blocks of time and enable a Locked Mode, which would not allow you to access or cancel those limits.

Delete the apps and block the websites-

Deactivate your accounts or uninstall social media apps from your phone, as keeping them would hinder your success because notifications play a crucial role in addiction. Restrict access to social media websites on your laptops/ computers. If you are still struggling, ask a trusted family member/ friend to change the passwords of your accounts, and share them with you after your detox.

Plan your detox period-

Find ways to stay distracted during your detox to fill that void of extra time in hand; otherwise, you will claw your way back. Try to replace this habit with some non-technology habits like reading, spending time with loved ones, learning something new (language, hobby, skill), writing, exercising, practicing yoga & meditation, travel. Try to go out with friends or go for a walk when you are enticed to use your device.

Give your phone a bedtime-

Make a schedule that after 9 pm, your phone goes into its charging station preferably out of your arm’s reach. The less access you have, the less likely you are to explore social media.

Get an alarm clock-

Put an end to using your phone as your alarm clock. Start your day with a focus on intention (What do you want to accomplish?) while should end it with reflection (How did today go? How can tomorrow be better?). When your phone is in your hands as you wake up, you are likely to go straight to scrolling.

Reward yourself-

You can also reward yourself for getting the focused work done. E.g., work for 1 hour with focus and get 5 minutes of online stuff as a reward. Be sure not to take your bonus without doing the work first.

Life can be ugly and depressing at times, but none would want their social media accounts to reflect this aspect. What we see is crafted and selected. So, do not allow this selective expression to take away your life satisfaction. Whenever you feel virtually oversaturated, follow Social Media Detox to lead a calmer and simpler life. Life happens between social media scrolls and your self-doubt. So, post less, do more, compare less, reflect more, discuss less, accomplish more. Let us pause temporarily and go for a reality check.

Are you ready to take the much-needed break to be alone with your thoughts and loved ones to rejuvenate? Are you prepared to unplug to unwind?

Laughter is No Laughing Matter!

July 29, 2020 by Bob Singhal

How wonderful is it that we laugh because our bodies cannot contain Joy! Laughter is an instant vacation. Don’t you love people who make you laugh? I do! I honestly think that it is the thing that I like the most – to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills without going to the doctor. You must have noticed that when you post original and funny images or videos, how easy it becomes to get a lot of reaction from the public. Laughing is and will always remain the best form of therapy. The famous saying goes that when you laugh, the world laughs with you. And it is true. When you laugh, you change. When you change, the whole world changes. Laughter is the most beautiful and most beneficial therapy God ever granted humanity. A good hearty laugh everyday relieves a person from stress and physical tension. Thus, even the muscles are relaxed after good laughter.

The Benefits of Laughter

Truly said: laughter is the best priceless medicine that is fun, free, and easy to use.

As children, we giggle and laugh hundreds of times a day, but as adults, our lives become more hectic, and we seldom laugh. But, when you seek more humor and laughter, you improve your emotional health, strengthen your relationships, find happiness—and even add years to your life. Doctors have revealed that people who have a positive outlook on life tend to fight illness much better than people who tend to have a negative outlook on life. So smile, laugh, and live longer!

Benefits of Laughter and Humor

Physical Health Benefits.

Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, lively laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for 45 minutes. Laughter has the following physical effects on our body:

It boosts immunity. It boosts the immune system. Laughter boosts the immune system and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance.
It releases stress. Laughter decreases stress hormones and releases natural feel-good chemicals for the body. Endorphins boost mode, promoting an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
It is suitable for respiration. Laughter can do good for your lungs and respiratory system. Laughter makes your exhalations more effective. When you laugh, your lungs are rid of stale air, and more oxygen can enter because laughter helps to expand alveoli in your lungs.
It lowers blood pressure. Laughing increases and regulates blood circulation, delivers oxygen and nutrients effectively in the system, and supports the immune system. It also de-stresses and allows the muscles to relax. Stress is a principal reason for high blood pressure, and laughter is an excellent antidote for stress.
Improves cardiac health ( protects the heart ). Laughter is a unique form of cardio workout, especially for those incapable of doing any other physical activity due to injury or illness. It gets your heart pumping and burns the same amount of calories per hour as walking at a slow to moderate pace. So, laugh your heart into health. Laughter improves blood vessels’ function and increases blood flow, helping protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
Works on your abs. It can help you tone your abs. When you are laughing, your stomach’s muscles expand and contract, similar to when you intentionally exercise for your abs. Meanwhile, the muscles which are not in action to laugh are getting an opportunity and time to relax. Add laughter to your ab routine exercise and get a toned tummy.
It burns calories. When you laugh for 10-15 minutes, it helps in burning 50 or more calories. But, don’t rely on laughter to help you lose weight, though.
It is an excellent exercise for the facial muscles. Laughing increases the blood supply to your cheeks that nourish the skin and makes your face glow. It tones up the front., giving you an attractive look.

Mental Health Benefits

We gain a lot from laughing! Laughter has the following positive effects on our overall mental health:

It lightens anger’s heavy load. Nothing diffuses violence and conflict faster than an apportioned laugh. Looking at the funny side can enable you to move on from disputes without holding onto tartness.
Eases distressing emotions: Laughter counteracts intense emotions such as anxiety, sadness, and grief, which are all reasons to an unrelaxed mind and body.
Revitalizes: Along with decreasing stress, laughter also increases and boosts our energy levels, which helps us to stay focused more easily.
Changes your perspective and outlook: Laughter helps us access and analyze other’s points of view. Moreover, we begin to see something in a new and more secure way when we can laugh about it. Besides, humor helps us not to take things so seriously that it may harm us.
Reduces stress: When we smile and laugh, cortisol levels, also known as the stress hormone, decrease. Thus, lower levels of stress are better for our mental health. Therefore, laughter increases our stress resilience.
Brings joy, fun, and zest into our life: This one is self-explanatory!

Social Benefits

Laughter is mainly about interpersonal relationships and bonds. We all are a part of a society that tends to segregate, isolate, and divide people. Laughter, smile, humor, and comedy are the new age communication ways to bond with each other.

Laughter improves communication

Laughing together fosters better communication and improves cooperation and empathy among people with different backgrounds, leading to a less confrontational approach, less intense situations, and a radical change from individual competitiveness to team cooperation.

Laughter promotes person-to-person bonding.

80% of our laughter occurs during everyday comments in everyday social situations and only acts as social signals of goodwill and friendship.

Simulated Laughter

If nothing seems funny, it’s still possible to laugh.

Simulated laughter is triggered by oneself at will (self-induced, self-initiated, voluntary), with no specific reason (purposeful, unconditional), and therefore not elicited by humor, fun, other. It gives the same benefits as when laughing when the real thing and instead can be more fun and productive. Plus, when you hear others laugh, even for no apparent reason, it often triggers genuine laughter within you. To practice simulated laughter, search for laugh yoga apps or laugh therapy people or groups which are now available in ample. You can also start simply by laughing at other people’s jokes, even if you don’t find them funny. Both you and the other person will bond well. It will draw you closer, and the bond will strengthen, and who knows, it may even lead to some spontaneous laughter.

Ways to create opportunities to laugh?

Watch a funny movie, TV show, or a video.
Go out with friends or co-workers out to a comedy club.
Seek out and add funny people to your life.
Share a joke or an amusing event with friends and relatives.
Check out bookstore’s or the library humor section and read comic pages.
Host game night with friends.
Play with a pet.
Join the “laughter yoga” class.
Goof around with children.
Indulge in fun activities (e.g., bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke).

To sum it up, laughter helps you feel good. The good feeling that you get while laughing stays with you even when you have stopped laughing. Thus, laughter helps you with a positive outlook in difficult times. A slight smile or a laugh can do a world of good for you.

Wisdom That Will Change The Way You Work

July 13, 2020 by Bob Singhal

Wisdom is not a result of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it. It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool than to talk and remove doubt.

Derivation of the Word Wisdom

Many ancient cultures recognized a particular way of being, speaking, and acting that needed a word to describe it. Wisdom comes from two old English words, `wis` and `dom.` The word `wis` may be related to the Latin `visionem.` A wise person is someone with vision, whether in terms of motivation for working towards a good future or having a broad perspective on life.

The word `dom` another Old English word relates to making the right decisions or judgments. A person having this quality is likely to be respected and consulted by others as an authority in practical matters.

More important than the word is the quality that it signifies. To grow in Wisdom can be the task of a lifetime.

What is Wisdom?

Wisdom is a set of dispositions, skills, and policies that help us liberate about what matters in our life and translate that into choices and actions. We need to figure out what’s right and achieve those things in our life. We could further help those who are struggling with their deliberate and choices.

Wisdom is the capacity to create and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, general sense, and insight. Intelligence is related to attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.

Difference between Wisdom and Knowledge

Knowledge is a collection of facts and data. Wisdom is the blend of knowledge and experiences into insights that deepen one’s understanding of relationships and the meaning of life. Learning is a tool, and sense is the craft in which the device is used.

Does God Give us Wisdom?

From experience comes testimony. When you seek Wisdom, God will give it generously without finding fault: Wisdom offers you long life, wealth, and honor.

Can Wisdom be Taught?

No, Wisdom is not something that can be given by coaching though one can become learned over time. There isn’t a set way to act artfully under every circumstance. To grow wise, you must cautiously probe your intelligence through many experiences to apply your skills and knowledge more effectively.

What is Wisdom, and How do You Acquire it?

Wisdom is a morality that isn’t inborn, but you can gain through experience. Anyone interested in trying new things and reflecting on the process can gain understanding. By abundant learning, you can analyze your skills, put your knowledge to the test, and become a wiser person. Wisdom guides our thinking, attitude, and overall mindset. Wisdom is one of the highest qualities that a human being possesses. Knowledge cannot be taught to anyone, not even to the most intelligent person on the planet. It is the ability to think and perform actions using one’s own experiences, insight, and intelligence.

How to Gain Wisdom to Improve Your Working

Try New Things – Whenever you encounter anything new, open all the windows of grasping and then becoming a little wiser for having tried it. Try going to new places or try new social activities.
Step Out of Your Comfort Zone– We must do that which we think we cannot. A good example would be the fear of speaking in public.
Take the Initiative to Talk to People You Don’t Know Very Well – The more you’re able to empathize with people from different backgrounds and with diverse perspectives, the wiser you will be.
Be open-minded – Don’t base your opinions on what other people think. Do your research and look at both sides of the story before deciding what you think about something.
Enrich Yourself with Education – If you are interested in learning something new, taking a class is one of the best solutions to it. For example, learning a new language. Strengthen the language by taking a class or do so entirely on your own.
Find Wise Mentors – Identify people who strike you as knowledgeable in your life. It could be a family member, a fellow friend, or a teacher. Try to learn from him or her as to why others seek advice from them.
Read as Much as You Can – Reading is a way to absorb other people’s perspectives, no matter what subject they’re writing.
Realize That Everyone is Fallible – As you gain your Wisdom and experience, you will find the people you looked up to as mentors have their fallings. Strive to see people’s humanity and practice forgiveness when someone you revered makes a mistake.
Be Humble in New Situations – There will always be a time when the line between right and wrong would seem fuzzy, and you get muddled between the two. Don’t get into a new situation, presuming that you know how to act. Admitting your limitations is a high form of Wisdom.
Think Before Acting -Take as much time as you need to deliberate on a problem before making a decision. To make the wisest possible choice, measure the pros and cons of taking your experience and other’s advice.
Act on Your Values – Don’t accept a set of values because that’s what you were taught. Ultimately, your values should be in alignment with your conscience.
Learn From Your Mistakes – Even a carefully thought of decision can end up being the wrong one. Don’t regret making a mistake; instead, learn from the experience. You’re human and realize that there’s no such thing as perfection.
Share Your Wisdom With Others – Always lead by example. Show others the Wisdom of being open, nonjudgemental, and thoughtful in all situations.

Who is a Wise Person?

A wise person isn’t necessarily who has more knowledge, but who knows how to use it positively and effectively. Wisdom means knowledge, experience, and understanding. It allows a person to make decisions, offer advice, and achieve the best possible outcome in a given situation. Living a balanced life is all about Wisdom. Wisdom is an absolute necessity. A wise person has learned how to live in discerns what’s right and wrong, wise or foolish, essential or insignificant, and then apply it to everyday life choices. A smart person measures words before speaking because words can hurt far more than words.

Effective Ways to Control Your Anger Before it Controls You

July 12, 2020 by Dikshi Gupta

What is Anger? Why do we feel Angry? Have these questions ever crossed your mind? Anger is an intense emotion that is triggered when you feel frustrated or annoyed by something or someone. An angry person experiences signs like increased heart rate/ increased blood pressure/ and increased level of adrenaline. Anger can have various physical and mental consequences. People generally tend to spoil their relationships and make mistakes while making decisions under the influence of rage because it causes one to lose their self-controlling capacity.

People generally think of their anger as a reaction to an external factor or someone’s behavior. But they need to understand that something inside them regulates their emotions regardless of what other people do. Therefore, it is paramount to practice anger management. Practicing anger management does not imply that you will never get angry, but involves learning to identify, control, and express your anger in productive ways rather than controlling others. Anger, when left unchecked, can lead to real rage, outbursts and can be very destructive.

Continuing to hold on to your anger is like grabbing hot coal to set fire to someone else, but you are the one who gets burned. Anger management gives you the power to control the way to respond to what is happening around. Below mentioned are a few tips to maintain your calm when you feel angry-

Identify Triggers/ Signs

If you lose your temper often, take note of what triggers you to lose your calm. It can be a traffic jam, lack of sleep, offensive comments, etc. Knowing your triggers can help you deal with it better as you might practice anger management techniques before encountering such circumstances to keep you calm.

Count Down

Start counting backward from 10, and by the time you reach 1, try to calm yourself because while counting, your heart rate will slow-down, and anger will subside.

Breathing Techniques

When someone loses their temper, they tend to breathe fast. Instead, you can reverse your anger by breathing slowly, taking a deep breath, and exhaling more than inhaling.

Don’t Talk

If you speak when angry, you will deliver the best speech that you will always regret. Because you are likely to utter demeaning words that can sour your relation, therefore, try to master the skill of keeping quiet.

Positive Self-Talk

For a minute of anger, you lose 60 seconds of happiness. Don’t let the anger control you and ask yourself if this anger will help you achieve your goals. Do some positive Self-Talk and repeat positive words to your inner self like ‘Relax,’ ‘Take it easy,’ ‘I can stay calm,’ ‘I will be Fine,’ etc.

Write a Journal to Express

Suppressing your anger can harm your health. So write, whatever you cannot say, on a piece of paper and tear it away when you are fine, but don’t hand it over to the person you were angry with as it would worsen your relation.

Walking in Nature or Exercise

Taking a walk in nature calms down your tensed nerves and reduces your anger. You can also do some exercise by riding a bicycle, Jogging/ jumping on the spot, or release stress using a punching bag, etc.

Let Yourself Have a Good Cry

Holding on to your anger will hurt you and not the person you were angry with. So, feel alright to vent it out by crying. You must have heard people asking you not to cry. But at times, crying can be the best therapy to release the anger within you.

Visualize a Relaxing Experience

Sit alone in a room, close your eyes, and visualize yourself amidst any relaxing scene like mountains, a flowing river, birds chirping, etc. and focus on details.

Listen to Music/Dance It Out

Music can uplift your mood quickly. Either listen to your favorite peppy/ soothing songs as it can calm down your tensed mind. You can also dance it out as it will harness the rush of energy in your body and bring you back to normal.

Talk to a Friend

Talk it out with a friend who can give you a neutral opinion and can help you gain a different and new perspective to the situation and can be very helpful to pacify you.

Explain your Anger

Resist acting on your anger, instead explain the reason for being angry when you have attained your calm as it will help you find a solution instead of arguments.

Don’t Blame

Don’t start playing the blame game. Use ‘I’ to refer to a problem that bothered you. E.g.- ‘I am upset because you did not help me while cleaning the almirah’ rather than blaming that ‘You never help in any household chores.’

Practice Gratitude

Don’t be blinded by anger. Count your blessings and focus on what is going right instead of what is going wrong. Gratitude might help you to neutralize your angry feelings.

Divert Attention & Laugh

Anger is like a time bomb that needs to be diffused in time to prevent the aftermaths. So, try to divert your attention by playing with a pet or child or practice to laugh by watching some comedy show/ movie.

Every day we have a lot of opportunities to get angry and offended. But indulging in such negative emotions is like giving something outside yourself the power over your happiness. Everyone experiences anger, but you should know how to deal with it before it turns into aggression or outrage. Anger and intolerance are the best rivals of Forgiveness and Understanding. If someone can make you angry, it is because you are off balance with yourself. Therefore, it is crucial to learn the art of controlling your anger before it dictates the path you choose for yourself.