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The Body as a Machine with Limited Energy
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Your brain is a physical organ. When you are sick, hungry, tired, or stressed, it cannot function as well as it does under normal circumstances. Your reasoning ability is also reduced, causing an increase in distorted thinking, which then causes an increase in inappropriate anger. Thus, effective stress management can reduce the amount of inappropriate anger you experience. Sharon had an experience which illustrates this well. One night just before starting dinner, she sat down to help her daughter with math homework. This was probably the worst time to help her daughter as Sharon was hungry and tired from a hard day at work. Her daughter was restless and finding it difficult to concentrate because she too was tired and hungry. The result was predictable. Instead of recognizing her daughter’s restlessness as a normal response, Sharon distorted the situation and became angry. But after dinner, when they were both relaxed and in a better mood, she re-engaged her daughter and things went much more smoothly. The first rule of stress management is to consider your body as a machine with a limited amount of energy. Like any complex machine, it can do only so much before it needs to be repaired and resupplied with fuel. One way in which David applied this principle was to make a rule that after work neither he nor his wife would talk about anything likely to cause conflict before they ate dinner. Prior to establishing this rule, he would come home tired and hungry and begin discussing a topic such as family finances with his wife. Because she was usually also tired and hungry, this became a time of frequent arguments. Choosing to discuss matters like these only when they were feeling relaxed greatly reduced the amount of inappropriate anger David experienced. (The above has been extracted from Mr. Peurifoy’s books, Overcoming Anxiety and Anger: Taming the Beast) |
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E-mail comments to: lrsc@rpeurifoy.com Disclaimer: This site contains general reference information and is not intended as a substitute for consulting with a physician or a psychotherapist. Copyright © 1999 by Reneau Peurifoy, MA — All Rights Reserved |