"Anger is only a letter short of danger." -Unknown

Anger is a strong emotion, expressing displeasure, towards someone or something. Anger management is about coping with anger. It is about calming the reaction within; it is also about controlling the external expression of it.

Why is anger management important? Anger is not only about the stress you feel within, but also about external expression of it; so it is much more important to learn how to control anger.

While your stress has direct effect on you, but only indirectly affects others, your anger has the potential to more directly affect your environment and other people. And while the stress involved in being angry can hurt you slowly from inside, an incorrect external expression of anger can cause social and/or legal ramifications that may be more immediate in nature, and have a potential to hurt you a lot more.

However, it is not always possible to successfully calm the anger reaction from within. Sometimes you may feel you are rightfully angry. For such situations when you do get angry, it is a good idea to focus on expressing anger effectively.

Here are some tips to do just that:

* Communicate Instead Of Criticize: If anger did get the better of you, and if you feel you have to tell off, do so in a non-judgmental way. Two persons need not look at an issue the same way, and you always have a right to your view point. It is just a matter of putting that forward to the other person in such a way, that it helps them focus on YOUR issue rather than on themselves; realize that the moment the other person becomes defensive to your comments, the focus has shifted from your issue to the person himself.

* Focus Your Energies On Solutions: Wherever possible, try to divert your negative energies to positively come up with a solution to what you feel needs to be addressed. This is not an easy tip, but do-able with practice.

If it is an argument, focus on the on-going discussion and not on the persons. If it is an injustice of some sort, focus on what you can methodically (and legally) do about it, rather than aggravate tempers. Keep the energy, but shift your focus from the person to the situation, and from the situation to the solution.

While flaring other person's tempers could be tempting, and may even give you an immediate sense of relief, more often than not, it only compounds your issue instead of subsiding it. How can you possibly come up with a solution then, when you yourself become a part of the problem by helping compound the very issue that you wish to resolve?

If there is anything called constructive anger or the upside of anger, this is it - when you use the anger power judiciously, towards solutions instead of creating problems, by learning to express it effectively.

"Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world." -Sivananda