<ul><li>Anger: An emotion felt when we believe we have been wronged.</li><li>Aggression: is an act of expression of the anger, by our words our actions. Aggression can be insults, sarcasm, shouting or physical forms like breaking things. It can also manifest itself in stress, loneliness, anxiety, guilt, or awkwardness.</li></ul>When we criticize the anger, we are providing fuel to the fire, leading to further aggression on the angry person's part. If we ignore and give in, we are setting a wrong example and the person learns that it is ok and effective to be angry.

Anger and Aggression

Unchecked self-talk can easily turn into self-delusion. The stories we create almost always make you look like the good guy and cannot be termed as objective.<ul><li>The way to get out of this speculative self-delusion is to avoid any speculation about other people's anger, at least initially.</li><li>Make sure to note down the facts of the situation. This can make the story less according to your gut instinct, and more towards the objective reality.</li></ul>

Avoiding Speculative Self-Talk

There are certain predictable situations, times, events and triggers where anger appears. Sometimes when we act spontaneously or reactively, the other person can get stressed and defensive, and the symptoms for those emotions can be misinterpreted as anger.A way out of this is to approach conversations in a planned way, with thought and preparation. If we can understand the patterns of other people's anger, we can anticipate them and handle them better.

Patterns of Anger

<ul><li>We can try and validate the anger felt by an individual by making them know that their anger is maybe justified while putting firm but respectful boundaries on their aggression.</li><li>We then need to be clear about what type of aggression we are willing to tolerate, setting boundaries on the unacceptable.</li><li>We may have to put our foot down and be ready to leave the conversation or escalate the issue, without falling into the trap of guilt and emotion.</li><li>If possible, we need to restart the conversation when things have cooled down, and diffuse the issue in a calm way.</li></ul>

Validation and Boundaries

Dealing with other people's anger can be challenging, confusing, and sometimes terrifying-especially if it's someone we're close to like a spouse, parent, or co-worker. In this article, I'm going to teach you how to think about and handle other people's anger like a professional psychologist would.