10 Healthy Ways to Release Anger

We’ve all been there. Racing heart, sweaty palms, hands balled into fists. Anger is a natural human emotion, but bottling it up or letting it explode can have consequences. Finding healthy ways to release anger is the key to maintaining your mental clarity and protecting your most valued relationships.

Most of us “suck it up” or “let it out,” but struggle to find the middle ground. When we release anger through unhealthy expressions, we become prone to violence, abuse, and poor mental health [*].

In this guide, we’ll explore ten healthy outlets for anger and how these methods can help you find your center.

10 Healthy Ways to Release Anger

Many of us have a complicated relationship with anger. Sometimes, we want to indulge in bad habits to release that anger. But engaging in unhealthy coping mechanisms doesn’t eliminate the problem—it just sets it aside for a minute. Below are a few healthy outlets for anger.

1. Talk it out

Talking about your anger can be healthy… until it turns into ranting. When we focus on our anger for too long, we remain in a state of agitation, and we’re not really cooling off. So, what’s the best way to “talk out” your anger?

When we look at the bigger picture, the goal is to move from reactivity to resolution. You want to focus on the problem—not attack the situation or the people involved.

But before you jump into the discussion, ask yourself if you’ve entered “fight or flight” mode. If your emotions are too high, you risk being illogical or saying something you might regret. It’s best to give yourself some time before expressing yourself.

When you’re ready to confront the problem, focus on your emotions—not placing blame. For example, instead of being accusatory and telling someone, “You’re always late,” you can say something more productive like, “I feel disrespected when you don’t show up on time.”

From here, start implementing a solution, but don’t tell people what to do. Work collaboratively. Honor limitations and boundaries.

2. Throw or break something

We’ve all been told to release our anger on an object to avoid hurting a person. But being destructive is only productive when you’re expelling your anger onto something non-harmful and inexpensive.

Symbolic outlets for anger include punching bags or pillows that you can hit without risk. When you pick an object, allow it to represent something. Imagine you’re at the park lake, and you’ve picked up a big stone. Assign your frustration to it. Tell yourself, “This stone represents my anger, and I’m ready to let it go.” Then, throw it into the lake.

3. Scream

When you get angry, your body floods with cortisol and adrenaline, which sometimes manifests as a scream. From a psychological perspective, a scream is cathartic [*]. You get to internalize your external pain. A full-body scream also releases endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers—one of the best ways to release anger physically.

Still, much like anger, a controlled scream provides the best release. Remember, the goal of a scream is to relieve tension without hurting yourself or someone else.

One way is to scream into a pillow to muffle the noise. You can also try the low growl, which is a sustained, guttural noise that feels almost animalistic This type of scream can be more grounding because it uses your chest and diaphragm.

4. Sing

If screaming is a raw explosion of energy, singing is like a slow burn. Hitting the right notes means taking in large amounts of oxygen and controlling the exhale. In other words, it’s forced breath regulation that stimulates your vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers your heart rate and blood pressure [*].

If it helps, create an “anger playlist” of songs that help you release big emotions. These might include loud, fast-paced songs with heavy drums—whatever helps get your energy out.

5. Dance

Have you ever been told to “shake off” your anger? Dancing can help you do that. Dancing addresses the physicality of anger and activates neurological pathways that reduce stress and enhance mood [*].

There are many ways you can use dance to release anger. You can try the stomp-and-release, which involves focusing on your feet and imagining you’re crushing the source of your frustration. You can also try shadow boxing to a fast-paced song to “fight” your angry instincts.

6. Exercise

When you’re angry, the body quickly enters fight-or-flight mode. Exercise can wash out those stress hormones by replacing cortisol with endorphins and dopamine. It also facilitates better emotional regulation after a stressful situation and helps individuals recover from anxiety quickly [*].

One of the best kinds of exercise for anger is HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training). HIIT requires short bursts of high effort, which can provide an immediate release for spikes of anger.

If you prefer a slower burn, try resistance and weightlifting. The sensation of pushing, pulling, or lifting a heavy object provides proprioceptive input through sensory receptors in the muscles and joints. Through weight-based exercises, you engage this proprioceptive input and improve your body-mind connection [*].

7. Draw or paint

When your thoughts feel like a mess, art helps you take that grief outside of your body and into a medium you can perceive. When you draw or paint your anger, it becomes an object on the paper that you can observe instead of letting it consume you.

The physical sensation of making art can also be very soothing. You get the pressure of pressing a pencil hard into a sketchbook and the sensory relief from the smell of markers, the texture of a canvas, or the soft sounds of charcoal against a surface.

8. Journaling

Journaling puts you in a position to investigate the logic behind your anger. When you write, you might uncover hidden triggers. For example, if you’re reflecting on an argument you had with someone, you might realize, “I’m not actually mad. I’m sad that they feel this way about me.” That’s because anger is a secondary emotion that usually masks your true feelings.

Seeing your anger in writing allows you to look back at your “anger timeline” and spot potential patterns. Are you noticing that the same things are triggering you? What steps have you taken to address these triggers?

Feeling lost? Try the Fact vs. Fiction writing activity. Split your page into two sections, one for Feelings and one for Facts. Under Feelings, you might write something like “My friend was late because they don’t respect my time. They don’t really care about me. Under Facts, you might realize, “They were 10 minutes late because they forgot their wallet at home and had to pick it up.”

9. Take a walk

We might resort to walking when we feel angry because we need a change of scenery. What your walk actually does for you is reduce arousal and anxiety because you’re expelling energy [*].

If you’re going for an anger walk, don’t try to jump straight to calm. Let yourself feel the anger for the first five minutes. Stomp a little if you have to. After the first five minutes, start letting go. Visualize leaving your cloud of anger behind.

Still looping through angry thoughts? Try the 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique. Notice 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.

10. Meditate

When you’re angry, and someone tells you to “Just breathe,” it may not be the first thing you want to hear. But what you may not know is that breathing is a science-backed tool that can help you calm down when you’re angry.

Meditation makes us resilient. Studies have shown that 30 days of meditating increases mental resilience by 11%, so you can bounce back even when you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom [*].

Start simple with some breathwork or take tips from our handout on managing stress with meditation.

What Not to Do When You’re Angry

When we’re angry, it’s easy to be too quick to say and do things we might regret. Anger is a slippery slope that requires more preparation than you might anticipate. So what should we avoid?

• Ignoring your anger: Pretending your anger doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it’ll actually go away. It might even linger for longer than you can handle. If you don’t feel ready to address the core of your anger, give yourself some grace to find an outlet first.
• Venting too much: As much as venting can provide a much-needed release for the initial rage, overdoing it forces you to relive the negative experience over and over. Give yourself a time limit to resist the temptation of going overboard.
• Finding someone to blame: Sometimes, when we can’t get to the bottom of our anger, we try to find someone—or something—to blame. In the end, you may even end up being angrier at that person than you were at the start.
• Comforting yourself with vices: We all have our vices, but indulging them when we’re angry can be dangerous to our minds and bodies. Avoid turning to food or alcohol when you’re angry, as you risk eating or drinking too much.

But how do you know what coping strategy will work best? Use an anger thermometer to help gauge your level of anger.

Looking for tips on anger management for children? Check out our blog on anger coping skills for kids.

The Bottom Line

Anger can be all-consuming, but when you find healthy ways to cope, it doesn’t have to take over your entire day. Learning how to let out anger in a safe, helpful, and productive manner can make you more resilient in the face of stress.

If you or someone in your family is struggling with heavy emotions, our anger management worksheets can help.

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