Anger control speaker’s aim
by Ashley Sheffield
reporter

   In Be Good to Your Family! Controlling and Defusing Angry Situations, students learned that controlling their anger is up to them.
   Jill Gutbier, education coordinator for The Parenting Center, conducted the seminar on SE Campus last Wednesday.
   “You choose to be angry,” she said.
   “Positive choices in an angry situation will result in positive consequences,” she said.
   Gutbier discussed the main emotions that trigger anger problems: being sad, being frightened and being mad.
   Effective self-talk and setting personal goals, she said, are good methods to start controlling those feelings.
   “We never see the world the way it is, but rather the way we are,” she said.
   “So we are the only ones who can help ourselves,” she said.
   Time out and a cooling off period are good tools in anger management to help a person calm down, Gutbier said.
   People need time to think about what is making them angry in a rational way rather than irrationally, she added.
   “When you are able to calm down, you can communicate and things are better,” she said.
   According to Gutbier, people often get angry because they are accused of being wrong when they “know” they are right.
   Gutbier said someone might be right 99 percent of the time, but not 100 percent.
   People, especially in relationships, need to find that 1 percent and realize that everyone has his own opinion.
   “Would you rather be right all the time, or happy?” she asked her audience.
   People need to take responsibility and control their anger, Gutbier said, because the physical effects of anger can do an extensive amount of damage to any relationship, whether with a boss, children or parents.
   “By recognizing your anger, you are one step ahead,” she said.