Often, when we experience anger, there are other, more vulnerable emotions hidden beneath the surface. For example, we may feel hurt, fearful, rejected or overwhelmed. Looking ‘underneath’ our anger can help us to better understand our responses and learn to manage them more effectively.
This can be particularly important in personal relationships where we can find our emotions escalating very rapidly in ways we find difficult to control. In the illustration anger is helpfully represented as an iceberg, highlighting the way our deeper emotions can remain concealed from view.
Reflecting upon our anger in this way can help us to take a step back and look inside ourselves rather than lashing out at those around us.