When I attended UC Berkeley, way back in the day, if you wanted a quick overview of a book or a specific topic, you could buy the CliffsNotes version. This would give you all the important information about the topic and would save you a bunch of time. If you wanted or needed more indepth knowledge, you could always go to the original source material.
In my most recent Amazon best seller book Beyond Anger Management: Master Your Anger as a Strategic Tool, I discuss the Anger Mastery Cycle in detail. You can get a PDF of the Cycle by scrolling up to the Welcome Post and downloading it.
That being said, for any reader who would like it, here is the CliffsNotes version of the Anger Cycle.
Anger starts as a perception which gives rise to a feeling which elicits a reaction which is reinforced by an explanation which becomes a response.
Anger: This is the label we put on the emotion we experience.
Perception: By evolutionary design, we subconsciously scan our surroundings for any threat. In caveman times, this was a specific survival mechanism as all threats would kill us. Today, the scanning is the same but the nature of the threat has changed from a survival threat to a psychological threat.
Feeling: This refers to the “sensations” you experience. These sensations are matched to the threat you perceive and involve your body and your thoughts. Anger energizes you and prepares you for battle.
Reaction: This is the initial action you want to take to eliminate the perceived threat. The reaction is behavioral and not necessarily well thought out.
If the threat is not valid, your reaction will be seen as excessive.
Explanation: This is the justification you give yourself about your feeling and your behavior which reinforces both the perception of threat and the actions you want to take to eliminate that threat.
When you master your anger, you take a step back from the threat and analyze what is really going on and adjust your explanation accordingly.
Response: This is action you finally choose to take.
If you have evaluated the nature of the threat, your response will be valid for the situation and will include only the amount of force needed to eliminate the threat. If there is no valid threat, there will be no aggressive force.
Again, as a reminder, you can download a PDF of the complete anger mastery cycle by scrolling up to the Welcome post. You can also download the first two chapters of both of my Amazon bestselling books in the same post.
I welcome your comments.