Anger is something that’s frowned upon in our current society. We’re told we need to ‘manage’ our anger so we push it down where it turns to despair and depression. We hide it away where others can’t see it.

But anger is powerful and it will not be silent. It is loud and the more you push it away, the louder it becomes. You may not hear it with your ears but you will definitely feel it in your body.

The problem is that we’ve numbed our bodies too. The smallest symptom and we reach for the pill bottle. We rush to the doctor as we can’t bear to feel anything other than happy and successful.

We’ve labelled some emotions as bad and others a good. So we chase the good feelings in our attempts to ignore the bad.

But emotion is simply the movement of your own energy within you.

Your feelings are the way your body communicates with you. But when we suppress the emotions we label as bad, we push them down into the body where they do harm. And still your body tries to get your attention. It produces physical symptoms to let you know that something is wrong.

Many people think of anger as something explosive or something uncontrollable. But anger includes a range of less intense feelings too. Irritation, feeling pissed off, indignation – these are all ways that anger can show up.

So how can expressing anger help you grow in health and happiness?

Anger hides deeper emotions that need to be expressed

When we allow our anger to be expressed in healthy ways, we literally ‘let off steam’. Life can be a pressure cooker of stressful and difficult situations but when we let off steam, we allow the pent up emotions to leave our bodies. This gives space for our deeper feelings to be seen.

Anger can mask grief, sadness, loss, insecurity, worthlessness and other often painful emotions.

But these deeper emotions are the key to growth. They allow you to ask questions t0 explore what you believe about yourself and about your place in the world. When we uncover the cause of these feelings, we can begin to change our thinking.

Thoughts are like a constantly broadcasting radio station that becomes the background to our lives. Unless we pay attention to what is playing, we will hear the same music as repeated emotions and results over and over again. By becoming aware of our anger, irritation, indignation and pissed offness, and allowing ourselves to release the energy of them, we create space for what hides beneath.

Unexpressed Anger Turns Inward And Becomes Depression

E-motion is Energy in Motion. And energy needs to go somewhere. It’s not something you can ignore and hope it will go away. It might feel like it leaves as time passes but if you don’t express it, it stays in your body where it alters the chemistry of your internal systems.

It shuts down the production of ‘feel good’ chemicals or hormones that you need for health and happiness.

It interferes with your immune system and your nervous system leaving you tired, exhausted and lethargic. It shows up as chronic pain, headache, stomach ache and a range of other troublesome symptoms. Symptoms that make you exhausted, irritable and start the cycle all over again.

By expressing anger, and allowing deeper emotions to release as well, you effectively halt the chemical changes in your body that cause depression and despair.

Unexpressed Anger Creates Resentment

Resentment is the enemy of relationships. It destroys love and makes us want to withdraw from others. Little irritation upon little irritation builds until you can no longer see the person you’re with. Instead, all you can see are their annoying habits and the things that ‘drive you mad’.

As the resentment gets bigger the person gets smaller until you can longer remember why you’re with them. But behind that irritation lies other emotions. Perhaps you feel ignored, unappreciated, overworked, unsupported or unheard. These feelings show up as anger or indignation and build higher and higher, stronger and stronger until it reaches breaking point.

When you find healthy ways to release these emotions, you can create the space to reconnect, you can create the space to have constructive conversations that can lead to real change.

Unexpressed Anger Kills Happiness

It is impossible to hold two conflicting emotions at the same time. Wen you’re feeling angry or irritated you cannot enjoy the moment you’re in.

The search for happiness and joy often sees us following the latest ‘new thing’, indulging in risky behaviours or looking for a ‘high’. But happiness already exists within us. It’s our natural state.

Happiness is not a feeling that is fleeting but a deep contentment that fills your soul – Allanah Hunt

And one of the fastest ways to connect with that contentment and to allow anger and emotion to be released is to express it. Otherwise it stays in our bodies and shows up as pain and illness. Happiness can be built in layers in the same way that resentment can. I know which one I choose.

Expressing Anger Creates Space For New Experiences

When we’re feeling angry, (or feeling any of the other anger related emotions), we get trapped in a cycle. The more angry we feel, the more we see things to be angry about. It’s like a magnet. Anything that matches our emotions will be drawn to us.

But when we allow anger (and other emotions) to be expressed in healthy ways, we stop the cycle. We reduce the power of the magnet so that it no longer attracts experiences that trigger us. As our focus shifts we ‘suddenly’ see how much we are thankful for. Instead of seeing things that produce anger, we see opportunities and possibilities. We become braver and start to believe in ourselves more. We become quieter and can hear our intuition. Your intuition is your inner guide and is always speaking to you, but anger and other emotions can drown it out.

Following your intuition will lead you to new places, new people and new experiences. Experiences that will allow you to grow in health and happiness.

So now that I’ve given you 5 reasons why expressing anger is good for you, I want to give you some ways to express in healthy ways.

Yelling, sulking, violence toward others is not healthy and will destroy you and the people around you.

Instead when you feel the anger rising, take a step away. Physically leave the situation if you need to. If you’re in a conversation with someone, take a break. Tell them you need to think about what’s been said. Let them know you don’t want to talk about it right now but make a time when you will discuss it. This will help them feel heard and allow them to deal with their own emotions.

Take a walk, a run or go to the gym as physical exercise shifts the energy in your body. Go somewhere quiet and scream to the sky. Take yourself into nature and breathe in fresh air and breathe out anger. Write out your feelings without censor in a journal or diary. Do something creative.

These are all ways you can allow your anger to be released without it being destructive. Create a plan for yourself ahead of time so that the next time you feel the irritation rising or the anger flooding your body, you can simply put your plan into action.

Don’t let resentment build until you lose people and situations that are precious to you.

Take a step back and express your anger in healthy ways. Allow the energy of your e-motion to be released and then take a look at why you felt this way. Ask yourself some questions.

The answers are the key to growth, health and happiness.