

“And you can use that activation to serve a physical goal.” “Anger is a kind of mobilising emotion that is physiologically activating,” explains Brett Ford at the University of Toronto, Canada. It makes sense that the emotion, which evolved to prepare the body for a fight, might result in a burst of strength – and there is now a lot of evidence that this may give you the edge in many sports. So what are those benefits? And how can we harness them?Īs a first example of anger’s potential benefits, let’s begin with fitness. “So for me, it’s all about where we’re going to direct that energy.” “Suppression just leaves you feeling exhausted,” explains R David Lebel, an organisational scientist at the University of Pittsburgh. Indeed, the experts argue putting our angry feelings to good use may be far more effective than simply suppressing them. While overt aggression is clearly a destructive force, some recent experiments suggest that anger, and related emotions like frustration or irritation, can also bring some advantages – provided we know how to channel the energy arising from those feelings.

The Roman philosopher Seneca went as far as to describe anger as a “short madness” that sets us on the path to self-destruction – “very like a falling rock which breaks itself to pieces upon the very thing which it crushes”. A flushed face, pounding heart, the tendency to say words that were best left unspoken: these symptoms will be painfully familiar to anyone who has ever felt angry.
