Hi friends! Do you ever feel so angry that you want to explode? Do you ever feel annoyed, irritated, mad, or furious? Anger is a very common and normal emotion that everyone experiences. However, uncontrolled anger can get you into lots of trouble and can cause harm to your health and to your relationships. It can cause you to say and do things you would never do if you were calm and under control. Therefore, it is important to practice healthy ways to manage your anger. Today, you will learn about five different types of coping skills to help you control your angry emotions. Coping skills are things you can do to calm your brain and body and think more clearly when your temper rises. Before turning to coping skills, it can be helpful to notice warning signs in your body that let you know you are feeling angry. Examples of warning signs include heavy breathing, racing heartbeat, feeling hot, clenching your fist or jaw, shaking, or tightness in your chest. They also might include actions such as raising your voice, arguing, yelling, refusing to talk, threatening others, or pacing back and forth. These symptoms can be helpful warning signs to let you know that you need to stop and calm down. Here are five different types of coping skills that can help you better manage your anger: 1. Relaxation Skills: Relaxation skills help to relax your brain and body. These might include tensing and relaxing your muscles, spending time in nature, taking a nap, doing a five-minute meditation, grounding exercises, or practicing deep breathing techniques. Try the following deep breathing techniques for 2-3 minutes or until you feel calm. - Belly Breathing: Breathe deep through your nose, feeling your belly expand. Hold your breath for a couple of seconds, then breathe long and slow out your mouth, feeling your belly return to its resting position. - Square Breathing: Breathe in your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, breathe out your mouth for four seconds, rest for four seconds. Trace the shape of a square in the air as you do your breathing. - Triangle Breathing: Breathe in your nose for three seconds, hold your breath for three seconds, breathe out your mouth for three seconds. 2. Distraction Skills: Distraction skills help get your mind off the angry situation. Practice creative outlets such as hobbies, art, or writing in a journal. Other healthy distractions might include counting from 1 to 100, listening to music, watching a movie, or playing with a pet. 3. Movement or Physical Release: Sometimes anger can cause you to get physically aggressive, which can result in harm to yourself or others. It is important to practice healthy movement activities to release your anger in a productive way. This might include walking away from the angry situation, running, biking, swimming, martial arts, or exercises in your bedroom such as push-ups, sit-ups, wall sits, planks, or stretching. 4. Thinking Skills: Thinking skills help you notice negative thoughts that trigger your anger and then change these thoughts to something more helpful and encouraging. For example, maybe you're thinking about how unfair it is that you have to do your homework before you can watch TV, or how rude it is that your friend brags after beating you at a board game. Instead of letting these thoughts take over, you can change your thoughts by telling yourself, "Relax, it's okay, time out, I'm taking a walk," or "I'm letting this one go, it's not worth getting angry about." It is important to remember that your thoughts can affect your feelings and your actions, so if you change your thoughts, then you can change the way you feel and how you act. 5. Communication Skills: It can be helpful to use your words to express how you feel. Tell the other person how they made you feel, but don't blame, judge, or criticize. Use I-statements such as, "I feel mad when you brag about winning because it seems like you don't care about my feelings." You can also use communication skills by asking for help or talking to a supportive person, such as a friend, parent, teacher, or counselor. You may not be able to completely get rid of your angry feelings, but coping skills can help you reduce your anger to a more manageable level. An anger thermometer can be a useful visual tool to help you manage your anger. First, you can identify your level of anger, from annoyed to enraged, then you can move across to the corresponding coping skills and practice one or more coping skills to help you control your angry emotions. If one coping skill does not work, then move on to another until you find the combination of coping skills that help you to feel calm and under control. It's okay to feel angry, but what's important is that you find healthy ways to manage your anger. The next time you feel your angry emotions rising, stop and remind yourself to practice a coping strategy from one of the following categories: relaxation skills, distraction skills, movement skills, thinking skills, or communication skills. If you found this video helpful, please like, share, and subscribe. For more social, emotional, and mental health resources for kids and teens, please visit www.mytrendyphone.com.