Valentina is Junior at Purdue University studying Psychology and Human Services.
Hello everyone! This is Valentina, Jahreesia’s mentor. This week, our activity focused on anger, more specifically, how anger can affect us both mentally and physically and how anger can influence our behaviors toward ourselves and others.
With Jahreesia, we talked about what happens when she gets angry, from her triggers to physical/emotional reactions, and ways to manage her emotions to prevent outbursts towards others.
While anger is definitely not a fun topic to talk about, Jahreesia and I enjoyed the opportunity to talk about our feelings and brainstorm ideas that could help her and me manage how we react when we get angry.
We focused on strategies that allow us to feel our emotions but also prevent us from giving in to the urges to take it out on others. For example, Jahreesia expressed that when she gets angry, she is prone to yelling at others, so we determined that in those situations, it might be best for her to get out, separate herself from the situation/person causing her anger and give herself a moment to breathe, silent scream, or find distractions. We also came up with different distraction strategies that might work for her, like eating/holding some ice cubes to switch the focus from her angry thoughts to the cold sensation, seeking something that will make her laugh, and finding a comforting place like her bed to relax.
Overall, I think this activity allowed us to learn more about what makes us angry, what escalates those emotions into outbursts, and how we can keep our anger under control. I truly enjoyed learning about what helps Jahreesia with her anger and helping her figure out some new coping strategies by sharing my experiences with anger. I can’t wait to see what we will get to talk about during next week’s activity!
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