Anger is Natural

By Deb Denny, red belt

Anger is a natural and powerful human emotion, one that needs to be channeled in positive ways to remain healthy. Pent up or out of control anger can result in problems – problems at work, school, home that can affect the overall quality of your life. Explosive anger can affect personal relationships as well as your health and wellbeing. Physiologic changes accompany anger states that can cause health problems if a person is continually agitated without a healthy release for the emotion. Like a pressure cooker without a relief valve, pressure builds up within until the pot explodes.

In nature, anger triggers aggressive responses necessary for our survival. In modern society where jungle survival is not the general rule, anger needs a healthy outlet to release the built-up pressure. Physiologically, anger is accompanied by a rise in blood pressure, blood sugar and release of chemicals such as epinephrine and cortisol. Continued exposure to these hormones can lead to decreased ability to fight disease, stroke, diabetes, insomnia, heart attacks and depression.

Anger management can be accomplished in a number of different ways. Relaxation, restructuring your thoughts, better communication, avoidance of triggers, and removing yourself from the stressful situation. However, exercise is the best way to change your outlook and increase the release of happiness chemicals such as endorphins into your system. MSK Taekwondo is inherently setup to help you manage anger in a number of ways.

The structure of MSK Taekwondo is designed to minimize injury and maximize exercise benefits. A robust stretching and warmup followed by intense interval workout will elevate calming endorphin levels in your bloodstream. The focus and intensity required will help to forget your problems and melt away all the stresses of our busy lives. Achieving this post-workout release will open your mind to solutions that you might not see in an agitated state.  As soon as you enter the dojang, you leave all your cares outside to focus intently on the techniques to be learned. The workouts instill a sense of well-being, and induce a deep, restful sleep that in itself will help in minimizing the need for angry outbursts in our daily lives.

The principles of MSK Taekwondo teach us the value of “HoShin” in life. Self-control is stressed and taught on all levels through the aims, objectives and tenets of the school. Training the body, mind and spirit ingrains these concepts so they reflect in our everyday lives. Every movement we learn from self-defense, sparring and poomse has a level of control to the technique. In class we learn to use power with the ability to stop before causing harm. This correlates with using self-control techniques in anger situations and will help you to diffuse anger.Teamwork and acceptance of our fellow students in classes, tournaments and symposia teaches tolerance and patience, necessary skills for dealing with other in daily relationships.

In conclusion, MSK Taekwondo teaches us to manage anger through the model concept in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. By training the body, mind and spirit we learn to alter our behavior in life through one’s journey in the Moo Sul Kwan Colorado Taekwondo Institute.