3.
4.
Develop a plan of systematic relaxation or exercise to decrease the harmful effects of anger on your body. Actually, not a bad idea at all, but, it's treating the symptom, not the cause of your anger. Learn the relationship between your beliefs that directly cause the anger in your gut and how to change them to more rational beliefs that stop the anger and lead to more appropriate emotions.
The first two are really lousy choices, so let's forget about them. Number three has some merit and can be incorporated in a good self-management plan. The last option is what Rational-Emotive Behavior Self Help is based on, that largely what you call your emotions (physical changes) is the extension of how you perceive and then evaluate a situation (your belief system). Therefore, the most natural and effective way of controlling one's emotions is philosophical re-structuring. If you follow and practice the methodology in this book for anger control, you might be amazed at how you can dramatically decrease the frequency, intensity, and duration of your hostile moments. It's not necessarily easy to do, but well worth it, so you can be physically/ psychologically more comfortable and more effective in dealing with your life situations. It takes hard work and practice in order to change your emotional responses to unpleasant situations. I believe this book contains the tools for you to learn how to use for anger control. Let's see what you think and feel after going through the book and practicing the Rational-Emotive Behavior way of keeping your cool.
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SITUATION One of the clients in my self-help group started to tease another client about being fat. I just lost it and really started to scream at her for being so cruel. (A) Activating Event
(C) Emotional Consequences
(B) Irrational "Hot" Thoughts
(D) Disputing
(E) Effective Coping Statements
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