Chilling out instead of blowing off steam better to manage anger, review of 154 studies says

By engaging in activities that decrease arousal, such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, yoga, meditation and mindfulness, you can control, or “turn down,” your angry feelings and aggressive impulses.

Some commonly recommended tactics for managing anger, including hitting a punching bag, jogging and cycling, aren’t effective at helping people cool off. That’s the key takeaway of our new review of 154 studies that looked at how activities that increase versus decrease physiological arousal affect anger and aggression.

Arousal is how researchers like us describe how alert and energized someone is. When you’re in a state of high physiological arousal, you’ll have increased heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and skin conductance due to sweat gland activity. Anger is a negative emotion associated with high physiological arousal.

In our study, we found that activities that influence arousal levels had a profound impact on anger and aggression.

By engaging in activities that decrease arousal, such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, yoga, meditation and mindfulness, you can control, or “turn down,” your angry feelings and aggressive impulses.

Crucially, our meta-analysis of participants from multiple studies found that activities that help decrease arousal worked across diverse settings, including in the laboratory and in real-world situations, both offline and online, and in both group and individual sessions.

In addition, activities that turn down arousal were effective for a wide variety of people – students and nonstudents, criminal offenders and nonoffenders, those with and without disabilities, and for participants of various genders, races, ages and countries.

In contrast, some activities people use to manage their anger amp up arousal and increase anger and aggression levels. Jogging, a popular stress-relief activity, actually increased anger in the studies we looked at. The repetitive nature of jogging may induce feelings of monotony and frustration, potentially exacerbating anger rather than alleviating it. Conversely, engaging in ball sports and physical education classes decreased anger, possibly because they are playful group activities that evoke positive emotions.