Why It's Okay To Be Angry

For some reason, anger has been given a bad name.

Often, the moment we get angry, we are told to calm down. Some people will even look at you like you’ve lost your mind if you start ranting.

Maybe, instead of calming down, you should start writing it down. Don’t just skim over your feelings and ignore them. There are many benefits to not just feeling angry, but also expressing it.

Here are some reasons why expressing your anger is a good thing:

1. Anger Turns Into Depression When Not Expressed

When you take a normal and healthy emotion like anger and suppress it, it often becomes depression. For those of you who suffer from depression, you know how awful it feels.

It’s even hard to get out of bed. Often, people think they are sad (which is another perfectly acceptable emotion), when they are mad.

2. Passion And Anger Are Often Linked — If You Suppress One, You Suppress The Other

Most of us can probably agree passion is a great quality to have.

If you don’t allow yourself to be angry, you are taking away from how passionate you truly are. You will feel less excitement to go and do the things you love because you are holding in a huge part of who you are.

Think about a healthy, passionate argument you’ve had with a friend or partner: If you had to hold that emotion in when you were together, it would take away a lot of your excitement, too.

3. Anger Is Your Body's Way Of Telling You Something Is Not Okay

We should listen to our bodies way more than we do.

When you are feeling angry, it’s your body's way of letting you know something feels “off.” It could be that someone is mistreating and disrespecting you, or something else entirely.

We should always feel the right to stand up for ourselves and create boundaries. If we feel guilty for doing that, our anger can come out as a way of trying to protect us from a person or situation.

4. Anger Has Helped So Many To Go And Make Positive Changes

When someone sees an injustice happening, he or she often reacts with anger. This is a good thing! He or she wants to stand up for the person or people being mistreated.

As long as they use their anger to try to make changes in non-violent ways, they can truly transform it into positive change.

5. The More You Embrace Your Anger, The Less It Will Control You

We often associate anger with someone acting out and physically hurting someone or destroying property.

The truth is when anger is denied, it builds up and increases the likelihood of that person exploding. It’s the denial and shame of a person's anger that leads to lashing out verbally or physically.

If we were able to deal with our emotions in honest and positive ways, there would be way fewer situations of people misplacing their anger by hurting another.