This just in By Radhika Sagar, Staff Writer for www.GulfNews.com
Published: April 11, 2009, 22:54
You feel the heat crawl up your face, your voice automatically rises a few decibels and before you know it, you are an entirely different person. When anger arrives, it leaves no room for anything else. Especially at the workplace, the emotion is a dangerous thing to possess. Today, with Gulf News Wipe Out Waste (WoW) campaign, explore the damage caused by wasted emotions. Discover how you can channel your emotions into more productive outlets.
Assuming a person stays angry for even five minutes every day, he or she loses out on 109,500 seconds of happiness in a year!
According to the British Association of Anger Management, an average Joe is stressed and angry from dawn to dusk. How many seconds of peace of mind would that cost? Well, that is best left unanswered!
Some of the everyday energy drainers include:
Office rage
45 percent staff regularly loses their temper at work. This undoubtedly leads us to other forms of office rage whereby people get annoyed with as little as their co-workers clutter or even taking stationery from their desk and not returning it! The research further shows that 60 per cent employees are dissatisfied by volume of work, level of pay and lack of praise. A soaring 50 per cent workers dislike talking loudly in the office and get easily irritated by people who gossip and spread rumours.
PC rage
50 per cent of office workers react to problems with their computer by either abusing colleagues, hitting the computer, screaming, shouting or hurling parts of the PC.But this doesn't seem enough and a further 62 percent swear or scream at their computer. A staggering 53 per cent of network managers say PC problems trigger violence from users.
Road Rage
For a change, only 1 in 140 drivers feel like doing nothing to their car or while driving when faced with anger or stress behind the wheel. But realistically 90 per cent of drivers have experienced road rage in the form of rash driving, swearing, headlight flashing and deliberate obstruction. On a lighter note, 22 per cent make angry expressions and 15 per cent mutter under their breath.
Shopping rage
Out of the 18.6 billion hours that people spend in shopping in Britain, 3 billion hours are only wasted in queuing up. This inevitably gives rise to a number of complaints for poor service and also people admitting that shopping has become stressful as it triggers arguments with their partners. No prize for guessing that, 50 per cent of shoppers become angry at being unable to park.
Classroom rage
Due to the deteriorating manners of youngsters, teachers are faced with abusive language and threats of violence on a daily basis and a shocking 40 per cent of teachers have faced some physical abuse in their career.
Phone rage
Alexander Graham Bell wouldn't be happy to know that 65 per cent of people are more likely to express anger over the phone compared to 26 per cent in writing and 9 per cent face to face.
Off the Hook
The most useful technology of all times, 'the internet' seems to be another common reason for getting irritated. About 71 per cent of users get frustrated searching the net and 12 minutes is all it takes to trigger the rage! With such levels of irritation in every household, it doesn't come as a surprise that every 1 in 3 people do not meet or speak to their neighbours. Moreover it seems to be taking a toll on working parents, as 87 per cent admit to shouting at their children due to stress.
Although anger might sometimes seem inevitable, it is necessary to have a control over your emotions. The main reason for it being the tremendous harm caused to our health. The daily rush hour driving itself causes increased anxieties. An alarming 72 per cent of office workers drink too much coffee to cope, which leads to hyperactivity and increased blood pressure.
Stress has become so common that its existence is bigger than common cold! The effects of these stresses include low energy, feeling irritated, food allergies, skin rash, difficulty sleeping, head or neck aches and anxiety attacks.
As per the American Medical Journal, 10 minutes of laughter drops blood pressure by 10 to 20 millimetres. So, say goodbye to anger and use that time to laugh.
With inputs from Mohammad Jihad, Community Web Editor
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MY COMMENTS:
Let's go back to the beginning of this article: "Assuming a person stays angry for even five minutes every day, he or she loses out on 109,500 seconds of happiness in a year!" Have you ever thought about your anger this way? To be honest, I haven't. But think about it... how much time do you spend feeling angry in a day? How much energy do you expend thinking about your anger and how you'd like to "deal with" the people or situations that incite your anger? Do you find youself wishing that you could just make it go away?
What if I told you that you can? Well - you can. But first, you must understand how anger develops.
Anger crops up when our perceived experiences do not match our expectations for the events that occur in our lives. For example: take shopping rage. You run into Walmart to grab three things. You know exactly where they are in the store. You know the make and model of each item. You have factored in the time it will take to get through the store, pick up your stuff, and cash out, and you're on a tight schedule.
But lo and behold, when you get into the store, they have moved all the departments around. It takes longer than you thought to find what you wanted. Item number three on your list isn't available in the colour and the brand that you wanted. You need to find a store clerk to help you find what you want. The clerk doesn't appear to be entirely interested in helping you. Finally you find it and you head to the cash lines, which are all full. You go to the Express Check-out since you only have 3 items, but the girl at the cash is in training, and she doesn't know how to ring items through. So - although you are in the 'fast lane' it is moving slower than ice cold molasses. Your expectations are not being met, and you can feel your frustration beginning to reach boiling point. The final straw comes when you are the next person to cash out, and the girl in training looks at you sheepishly and says, "I'm sorry sir, after this customer I have to go on break."
Can you feel it? Can you feel the frustration even as you're reading this scenario? Yeah, baby... that is how anger builds.
The key to resolving and diffusing anger lies in the stages of this scenario, and begins with the point at which you first set your expectations. What if you talked differently to yourself - gave yourself different messages? What if you decided to give yourself more time, to give the girl-in-training a break, or to just occupy yourself while you were in line so you didn't have to focus on the long lineups? Changing your perceptions and modifying your expectations is just one of the key steps to resolving one's anger.
If you'd like to know more about the Anger Solutions model of anger resolution, visit http://www.angersolution.com/faqs.php.
