Anger Management Tools-The Anger Journal

There are serveral articles that focus on the role of communication skills in learning to manage anger. Unfortanatley the majority of these articles only describe how to communicate with others rather than teaching angry clients how to communicate with themselves.

Internal diaglouge is an important factor in how someone expresses their emotions and manifests their anger.

An anger jounal is an essential tool in the field of anger management. Any small notebook can be used to act as an anger journal or if you are drawn to technology, a blog is an excellent form in which to express yourself in the cyber-world.

An anger journal can be helpful in two ways:

1. An anger journal is a safe place to vent your rage without damaging personal or work relationships. Imagine your stress and frustrations being transferred from your body, through your fingers onto the written page or computer screen.

2. In addition an anger journal is a great way to see yourself-outside of yourself. After you have calmed down you have the ability to logically examine your thoughts, emotions and actions as you have described them in the written text.

An excellent excersize would be to ask yourself:

Why did I get angry?

What did I do when I got angry?

What could I have done differently?

Be sure not to use your journal as a anthology of your mistakes and failures but as a blue print for future triumumphs.

Daybreak Counseling Service
www.daybreakservices.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/angryinla
http://myspace.com/angermanagementeacher
310-995-1202