On Being Angry about the Psycho-Political Warfare, By Mrs Vera West

My apologies, I got the material in the extract below in an email, and there was oddly no URL link to it. So, I cannot reference it, but take the information for what it is. It sems to me to make some good points of psychology. We all know going through the news, even the blog items, can make one angry about the sheer level of evil, and what is going down. It is natural to get angry, and objecting to one having a righteous emotion, quite appropriate to the circumstances is, as the author says, "weak-thinking, soft-brained, kumbaya, millennial argle-bargle." I like that turn of phrase. However, anger can have damaging health effects, such as increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, so it is not a productive emotion to let operate for too long. One needs to work through it, and come up with positive life strategies.

Many things can be done to essentially reduce stress, even involving the use of colours for relaxation, as discussed below. Cultural engagement can help even with depression. I think here there is a new branch of psychology, "music therapy" which uses music to reduce stress and produce calm. And that makes a lot of sense when you try it. Classical music, not the common popular culture garbage from the 1960s on, which has a Left-wing message.

"Becoming angry doesn't hurt your "mental health." It is a normal emotion. You will become angry, anxious, scared, happy, content and exasperated in your life quite naturally. These are normal feelings, and we have to deal with them. You do not "have anxiety" because you are anxious, and you do not have "anger issues" because you get angry. This is weak-thinking, soft-brained, kumbaya, millennial argle-bargle. However, allowing yourself to boil over with anger and not deal with it is indeed damaging — to our hearts, brains and gastrointestinal systems, according to doctors and recent research.

A recent study looked at anger's effects on the heart. The Wall Street Journal reports that the clinical trial "found that anger can raise the risk of heart attacks because it impairs the functioning of blood vessels, according to a May study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

"Researchers examined the impact of three different emotions on the heart: anger, anxiety and sadness. One participant group did a task that made them angry, another did a task that made them anxious, while a third did an exercise designed to induce sadness.

"The scientists then tested the functioning of the blood vessels in each participant, using a blood pressure cuff to squeeze and release the blood flow in the arm. Those in the angry group had worse blood flow."

Force Multiplier

Emotional energy exerts measurable, real force throughout your body. Negative thoughts have negative consequences. When you continuously worry and obsess about the insignificant nuisances of daily life, toxic emotions cause the body to secrete inflammatory stress hormones.

One of the easiest ways to become happier and resist wallowing in feelings of anger that crop up is to choose the right colors. What does this mean? According to Nancy Stone, Ph.D., a simple change in colors can help brighten your mood and stimulate peaceful feelings. Here are some suggestions:

• For energy: Get reds and purples. These two colors stimulate your body to produce more adrenaline and can be useful in home offices, entryways or small sitting rooms. Try to avoid them in the bedroom, where you would rather relax.
• For happiness: Go green and yellow. Using the colors of the outdoors and sunshine can help produce happier feelings. Ideal for any room. Or just try adding a rug, throw pillow or artwork in any room for fresh inspiration.
• For calmness: Choose blue. The color of the sea and sky naturally evokes calm, soothing feelings. It can work well in any room where you want to relieve stress.

On the other side of the coin, A study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry has found that you can lower your risk of depression by a huge 48 percent just by doing this simple and enjoyable activity once a month: Cultural engagement.

Researchers at University College London looked at the link between the frequency of "cultural engagement" and the chances of someone over 50 developing depression.

They examined data on more than 2,000 people over the age of 50 who took part in the long-running English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), covering the health, social, well-being and economic circumstances of mature people in England.

The researchers combed through data over the course of 10 years, including information about how often people in the study visited the theater, concerts or the opera, the cinema, art galleries, exhibitions or museums as well as their depression symptoms.

When the results were adjusted to take account of differences in people's age, gender, health and their levels of wealth, education and exercise, the benefits of cultural activities remained clear — people who attended films, plays or exhibitions a few times a year had a 32 percent lower risk of developing depression.

Even more impressive, those enjoying such outings at least once a month or more had a 48 percent lower risk of developing depression. Those benefits were independent of whether or not people had contact with friends and family or took part in social activities like clubs and societies — things that are widely known to be beneficial for staving off depression. Meaning that if you already spend time with family and friends and participate in social activities, adding a movie or play once a month might have additional happiness benefits.

This is relevant because anger and depression seem to feed each other. A study from 2016 found the presence of anger has "negative consequences, including greater symptom severity and worse treatment response." Researchers concluded that "based on this evidence, anger appears to be an important and understudied emotion in the development, maintenance, and treatment of emotional disorders."

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, tells us that you can increase your own happiness by "writing down three new things you are grateful for each day ... [as] research shows this will significantly improve your optimism even 6 months later, and raises your success rates significantly." Another trick is to "write for 2 minutes a day describing one positive experience you had over the past 24 hours" which, according to research for his book, dramatically increases happiness.

Put simply, the more you work on happiness as a habit, and get out and enjoy yourself, the more likely you are to be happy, and to be able to deal properly with any feelings of anger you might experience.