Secret to Control Anger/Temper – Use Your Wrong Hand. .... A new study.

Are you one of those facing anger issues ?.
Unable to control your temper, feel like screaming at queue jumpers or sly colleagues or bossy people.

Well now there is an easy way out.
NO you don’t need to do meditation or even count to ten to control your rage.
All you got to do is a slightly odd kind of exercise – Just Use Your ''WRONG HAND'' claims a study.

Now if anyone wants to control temper then train oneself to use the ‘wrong hand' as a way of self control, ... a recent study has reported, which was published in March, 2012 issue of the ''Journal Current Directions in Psychological Science''.
A more aggressive person usually harms himself by lacking self control and does not understand what he has done and how it could be control.
Dr Thomas Denson of the University of New South Wales in a study showed that people who were able to use their non-dominant 'wrong hand' up to two weeks were able to keep their aggression in check much better. So if you are right handed, you are told by Dr. Denson to make use of your left hand ‘for pretty much anything that is safe to do.

( Stirring tea with left hand ).
’Thus for instance if you are right handed you must try to get into the habit of switching on TV, opening a door, using remote controls or stirring a cup of tea etc with your non-dominant left hand, while the left-handers must do just the opposite as according to Dr. Denson ‘This requires people to practice self control because their habitual tendency is to use their dominant hands.”

(Opening door with left hand) Dr. Denson opines that practicing self-control is not really different from getting better at a hobby we indulge in like say golf or playing piano. It is basically self control which keeps us from hitting out at queue breakers or throttling scheming colleagues.

(Using mobile with left hand).
Dr Denson also believes that the more you practice controlling your impulses over long term, the more your self control capacity gets stronger over time “It is just like practicing anything, really - it is hard at first.” But, over a period of time, it can make anything annoying easier to deal with.

(Using a remote with left hand).
In studies he showed people who try to use their non-dominant hand for two weeks keep a lid on their aggression better.

(Thumbs up with left hand)

(Plug in/out with left hand)

(Pointing things with left hand)

(Writing with left hand).

In one experiment, participants were mildly insulted by another student and were given the option of retaliating with a blast of white noise, a combination of all the different frequencies of sound also known as static.
Those who had practiced self control responded less aggressively.

Road rage: Is self-control a skill you can 'practice' like doing keyboard exercises to learn piano ?
Dr Denson and colleagues said criminologists and sociologists have long believed people commit violent crimes when an opportunity arises and they are low on self-control. He said: ‘It is an impulsive kind of thing.’
For the last ten years or so psychologists have joined this research, using new ways of manipulating self-control in experiments, and found self control and aggression really are tightly linked.
Studies have also found that, after people have had to control themselves for a while, they behave more aggressively. So longer the duration, better it is.
Dr Denson said: ‘I think, for me, the most interesting findings that have come out of this is that if you give aggressive people the opportunity to improve their self control, they are less aggressive.’
It is not that aggressive people don’t want to control themselves - they just aren’t very good at it.
In fact, if you put aggressive people in a brain scanner and monitor their brain activity while insulting them, the parts involved in self control are actually more active than in less aggressive people.
So it might be possible to teach people who struggle with anger or violence problems to control themselves more easily.
The same basic fact is predicted in the figure below which depicts the nornal brain centres of a Right-Handed person.

For people not inclined towards violence, it may also be useful to practice self control by trying to improve your posture, for example. Added Dr Denson: ‘ if you practice that over the long term, your self control capacity gets stronger over time. It is just like practicing anything, really - it is hard at first.’

But, over time, it can make that annoying colleague easier to deal with.