Being Grumpy: Benefits of Anger and Tips to Control It

Being grumpy isn’t always a bad thing. For instance, it’s important to express your real feelings when you feel them, so you understand how you genuinely feel in the moment. If you smile at someone when you feel like frowning, you’re more likely to be misjudged. Next time you feel grumpy, you might want to be yourself, and show how you feel.

Being a Grouch Has It’s Benefits

In this situation, money, fame and beauty don’t matter, because you’re better than this. In fact, you can be healthier mentally, emotionally and physically. This is something money can’t buy unless you need life-saving surgery or therapy to fix your problems. Consequently, according to research, anger is linked to glaucoma, heart attack, stroke and others. When you allow yourself to get angry, you can release this tension. After this, you’ll probably feel calmer. Besides this, you won’t know what your values and beliefs are if you don’t express your feelings. Therefore, when you show how you feel, you can think more clearly.

Tips to Control Anger:

Ignore Negative People

One way or another, you’re going to meet a negative person. From people who run red lights and stop signs to big bad bullies, they exist to make everyone else’s lives miserable. Those who judge you for being who you are aren’t treating you as a human being. You can leave these people out of your life. If you can’t, then find every way to ignore them. For example, when you know they might be around, put on some headphones, read a book or draw cartoon doodles to make yourself laugh.

Escape by Finding Alone Time

Being stuck with someone you can’t stand can be torture. Besides this, you might come down with an illness like the Coronavirus if they accidentally touch you or cough in your face. This is one of the best reasons to become angry. Instead of pretending to be kind to them, escape to an isolated area. This might be the corner of a dusty library, your cluttered bedroom or an empty museum.

Try Being Empathetic

People have a tendency to provoke others for no good reason. While one person puts their foot out to trip you, another will surely be laughing as you fall. For some people, life is a nightmare that never ends. Rather than wasting your time hating them, try having empathy. For starters, consider helping people you actually like instead. Ways to volunteer include fundraising for the homeless, walking dogs at a pet shelter, joining a community garden or reading books to children.

Skip the Alcohol

Alcoholism can make you aggressive or angry, or feel feelings you wouldn’t normally feel. Sometimes drinking can even make you feel happier, but you pay later on by getting a hangover. The truth is genuine happiness and meaning come from having real goals, genuine relationships and good mental health, among other things. If skipping alcohol isn’t easy for you, you might want to consider therapy for alcoholism. Avoiding alcohol also means you can avoid a hangover and looking like a fool. Positive ways to have fun include participating in an adventure sport, watching a humorous movie or doing creative activities.

Find Out Why You’re Angry

Whether your grumpy state of mind has to do with an irritating relative or a dripping faucet, finding the source might calm you down. While you may be able to fix the dripping faucet, you might have to move to another country to avoid the irritating relative. Sometimes you have to move mountains and navigate obstacle courses to escape what bothers you.

Have Peace of Mind

When everything from chirping birds to bratty children begins to irritate you, you might realize you need to calm down. You can do yoga or meditation to gain peace of mind. Further, try breathing exercises at the office, on a park bench or almost anywhere you might be. Another way to calm down is to exercise by riding a bike, walking or swimming.

Express Your Feelings

Creative activities such as painting, creative writing or painting can help you be yourself more and express your feelings. You can learn to zone people out by focusing on doing hobbies you enjoy. This way, you’ll be too focused on inner happiness to notice them. You could be playing a guitar for pennies with your pet monkey beside you on a shady street corner and still be happy, because you’ll be doing what you love.

If someone doesn’t like you as yourself, you have the right to stop having a relationship with them. You can express your feelings, even if someone else doesn’t agree with you. Be strong enough to be grumpy, and you might find other grumpy people who agree with you. These are called real friends.

Author(s)

  • Louise Stanger Ed.D, LCSW, CDWF, CIP

    Writer, Speaker, Clinician, Interventionist

    Dr. Louise Stanger founded All About Interventions because she is passionate about helping families whose loved ones experience substance abuse, mental health, process addictions and chronic pain. She is committed to showing up for her clients and facilitating lasting change so families are free from sleepless, worrisome nights. Additionally, she speaks about these topics all around the country, trains staff at many treatment centers, and develops original family programs. In 2018, Louise became the recipient of the Peggy Albrecht Friendly House Excellence in Service Award. She most recently received the Interventionist of the Year Award from DB Resources in London and McLean Hospital - an affiliate of Harvard University, in 2019. To learn more, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDf5262P7I8 and visit her website at allaboutinterventions.com.