Anger

• Bach Flower Remedies: Impatiens [irritability], Willow [resentment], Holly [love thwarted].
• California Flower Essences: Black-Eyed Susan [allows repressed anger to surface, for its integration], Snapdragon [anger often expressed verbally], Scarlet Monkeyflower [fear of own anger, transforming it].

Quotes

Anger is like fire, it burns things out and leaves nutrients in the soil. I think that’s good. You should always be ready to be angered at injustice and cruelty, but not to be bitter. (Maya Angelou)

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host; it doesn't do a damn thing to the object! (Maya Angelou)

Choose your battles wisely. (Saying; associated with a happier, simpler life)

Terry Waite, held as hostage by terrorists for five years, much of it in solitary confinement (BBC, 1m9s, posted 24 January 2019, accessed 5 February 2019):
"I wrote a short poem about anger. Because I was angry at times, and I had to learn how to master anger. And the short poem reads:
What I was really saying is that if I allow my understandable anger to get the better of me, it’ll destroy me. And it’s a natural human force, we all have it. You can’t obliterate it totally. But take that force and utilise it constructively."


Emotions, particularly anger, are like fire. They can cook your food and keep you warm, or they can burn your house down. (Cus D’Amato)

With anger blood flows to the hands, making it easier to grasp a weapon or strike at a foe; heart rate increases, and a rush of hormones such as adrenaline generates a pulse of energy strong enough for vigorous action.
(Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, p.6)

Anger is the most dangerous emotion; some of the main problems destroying society these days involve anger run amok. It’s the least adaptive emotion now because it mobilizes us to fight. Our emotions evolved when we didn’t have the technology to act so powerfully on them. In prehistoric times, when you had an instantaneous rage and for a second wanted to kill someone, you couldn’t do it very easily – but now you can.
(Paul Ekman, cited in Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, p.311)

The basic premise children learn about anger (and all other emotions as well) is that “all feelings are okay to have,” but some reactions are okay and others are not.
(Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, pp.278-279)

Anger has got a bad press. But it isn’t the feeling that is bad. It is the behaviour that sometimes goes with that feeling that can be destructive or frightening.
(Philippa Perry, The Guardian, posted and accessed 17 July 2022)


Anger itself isn’t necessarily negative. “Anger is a hardwired emotion that is our defence to a threat,” says Dr Nadja Heym, associate professor in personality psychology and psychopathology at Nottingham Trent University. “It’s normal, healthy and evolutionarily important.”
It can be a powerful force for good, says David Woolfson, anger specialist and psychotherapist. “Anger drives us to achieve things – to fight for justice and causes, win marathons, right wrongs.”
Anger’s bad rep is due to the behaviours it can elicit. Rage can drive us to react poorly then regret it, so it’s helpful to know how to process it healthily.
(Laura Potter, The Guardian, poasted and accessed 8 December 2023)

Resources

• How to Calm Down (wikiHow).
• How to Control Anger (wikiHow).
• How to Restrain Yourself from an Outburst (wikiHow).
• Why it can be good to be angry (BBC, 2019).
• How to make a friend of your anger (David Woolfson, The Guardian, 2019).
  
• What does anger mean? (Rosie Withey, 2020) [How to use emotion as information].
• I took anger management classes. Here’s what they get wrong about the world (Olivia Watson, The Guardian, 2023) [What about addressing anger's root causes? Example: companies welcome these courses to stop workers getting angry at unfair things; otherwise workers disrupt things, lower productivity, unionize, demand higher wages. So, companies and governments abuse these courses to mould acquiescent employees and submissive citizens. Perhaps, instead of these courses, we - the people - need our anger so as to create the solidarity to overcome the inequality and elitist abuse?].
• Punch a pillow, hug your pet, write to your MP: 22 ways to deal with your anger (The Guardian, 2023).
• All the rage: women are furious – and repressing it can ruin our lives (Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian, 2024) [6% angrier than men].
• My childhood left me terrified of anger. Then a teacher showed me how to use it as a force for good (Marisa Bate, The Guardian, 2025) [Anger is used by men to intimidate and control women. But it can be used by women to change the world.].