The National Institute for Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine offers this vivid diagram of the effects of anger on the brain and body. Because all of us can fall victim to this powerful emotion, understanding just how toxic anger can be to our wellbeing should encourage us to learn how to build and sustain our capacity for resilience, because our resilience is our safety net in times of anger, frustration and resentment. (Read more about resilience below the image)
Just like tall trees bend and sway in strong winds without being uprooted, each of us has the emotional bandwidth to tolerate situations that would otherwise provoke our anger and upend our equilibrium. And that bandwidth is resilience - the capacity each of us has to prepare for, recover from and adapt to stress, challenge and adversity.
Resilience is not a genetic thing; it's a capacity, and just like a battery depletes over time, our resilience depletes during the day, from the time we wake up until we go to bed at night. And when we become angry during the day, our capacity for resilience can take a big hit, wearing us out well before bedtime. Building and maintaining our capacity for resilience is like building up muscles at the gym - the more we practice it, the larger our capacity becomes and - here's the really good news - the larger our capacity for resilience, the more tolerant, accepting and balanced we become, not only mentally, but physiologically, as well.
The Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California, has done extensive, pioneering research in the area of psychophysiological coherence, which measures the synchronistic functioning of all of the body's autonomic systems. The Institute's findings, which have been extensively peer-reviewed worldwide, concluded that the greater the body's synchronicity, or coherence, the greater the capacity for resilience.
The Institute of HeartMath went further and developed a program of breathing techniques to increase psychophysiological coherence and in turn, build a person's capacity for resilience. These techniques were then computerized into affordable software apps and programs that can be downloaded to computers and mobile phones that will coach users to increase resilience. Click in the HeartMath link, above, not only for details about its programs, but for a multitude of products that can be downloaded and utilized for personal wellness.
You may also email me through this website or call me at (512) 765-5450 for information about HeartMath workshops and seminars in Central Texas.