Anger: Taming a Powerful Emotion

by Gary Chapman

Publisher:

Northfield Publishing

, 2015

Help for anger management — from NYT bestselling author Gary Chapman

Anger is a cruel master. If you struggle even a little with anger, you know how it feels to get mad too easily. To lash out at someone you love. To hold onto frustration. You might even notice others seem uneasy around you.

You know anger is hurting your life, but you don’t know how to fix it.

There is hope. When you understand why you get angry and what to do about it, you can change the course of your life for the better. In Anger: Taming a Powerful Emotion, counselor Gary Chapman shares surprising insights about anger, its effect on relationships, and how to overcome it. His advice and real-life examples will help you:

• Understand yourself better
• Overcome shame, denial, and bitterness
• Discern good anger from bad anger
• Manage anger and conflict constructively 
• Make positive life changes
• Let go of your grudges and resentment
• Help others (like your children) deal with anger
  and more

Whether your anger is quiet or explosive, if it’s clouding your judgment and hurting your relationships, it needs to go. Learn to handle anger in healthy ways, starting today. Gary Chapman is wise and empathetic, and he'll help you turn over a new leaf.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Anger is fed by feelings of disappointment, hurt, rejection, and embarrassment. Anger pits you against the person, place, or thing that sparked the emotion. It is the opposite of the feeling of love. Love draws you toward the person; anger sets you against the person.” (source)

“Anger, then, is the emotion that arises whenever we encounter what we perceive to be wrong. The emotional, physiological, and cognitive dimensions of anger leap to the front burner of our experience when we encounter injustice.” (source)

“But I believe that human anger is designed by God to motivate us to take constructive action in the face of wrongdoing or when facing injustice.” (source)

“I counsel a five-step process: (1) consciously acknowledge to yourself that you are angry; (2) restrain your immediate response; (3) locate the focus of your anger; (4) analyze your options; and (5) take constructive action. As we complete each step, we move toward making our anger productive.” (source)

“We can’t control our bodily reactions; however, we can control our mental and physical responses to anger.” (source)

Praise for Anger

"Gary Chapman, best known for 5 Love Languages, will now be known for his superb book on Anger. All of us deal with anger. Anger can be thrown outward on everybody and everything or pushed inward mostly doing inner damage but eventually seeping out sideways and doing damage to others as well. Boundaries are crossed, relationships damaged and enormous stress wreck havoc within and throughout our lives. Chapman reveals the how and the why and more importantly the what now and where do I go in practical ways to tame this emotion. This should be in every small group, Sunday school, or Wed night study starting up this fall. Bravo!!"

Reviewed by David Sellers, Net Galley, Jun 8, 2015

"In a world where anger is largely glorified and we all have come to accept it as not only a part of life, but a means to protect oneself, Mr. Chapman has clearly highlighted the way out of the cage this self destructive emotion holds so many of us in. Rather than ignoring it, this book shows you how to recognize it, deal with it, and no longer be controlled by it or our situations. Though this book does teach you about anger, it also frees yourself to enjoy the rest of your life."

Reviewed by Christopher Havens, Net Galley, Jul 15, 2015

Product Details

• Title : Anger: Taming a Powerful Emotion
• Author: Chapman, Gary
• Publisher: Northfield Publishing
• Publication Date: 2015
• ISBN: 9780802493187

About Gary Chapman

Dr. Gary Chapman is the author of the best-selling The Five Love Languages (more than 6 million copies sold) and numerous other marriage and family books. He is the director of Marriage and Family Life Consultants, INC., an internationally-known speaker, and the host of A Long Language Minute, a syndicated radio program heard on more than 200 stations across North America. He and his wife, Karolyn, live in North Carolina.