In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says – Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy.

Amongst the various emotions that we go through, anger is the most seductive. A person can easily slip into this state without expending too much of effort. Unlike grief, which drains a person of his energy, or happiness, which puts a person off guard, anger energizes a person and gives an exhilarating feeling.

Anger is of two kinds – sudden irritation and cool-headed revenge. Sudden irritation is a result of the neo cortex being bypassed and instructions given to the brain to initiate impulsive actions. Cool-headed revenge on the other hand involves a lot of processing that occurs in the neo cortex thereby becoming a conscious action.

Anger to a person arises out of endangerment – either physical or emotional. Emotional endangerment could be a threat to one’s self-esteem or dignity in the form of an insult or a demeaning remark/action.

Unlike happiness, anger builds on anger and can rise to uncontrollable proportions. To come out of this state, one has to act as soon as possible and take efforts to regain normalcy.

Some of the common balms prescribed to come out of the states of anger are:

1. To seize and challenge the thoughts those trigger the rage. The earlier this is reached, the easier it would be for the person to return to a state of normalcy. If a person crosses a certain threshold level of anger, then he attains a state of "cognitive incapacitation", where no amount of reason and rationale would appeal or convince him/her.

2. Use mitigating information or cognitive reframing – Look at the opponent’s viewpoints and try to see where he/she is coming from. Information pertaining to the opposite side would be helpful in assessing and justifying one’s anger.

3. Do something you like most – At times of anger, it is advisable to indulge in activities that you derive maximum satisfaction and motivation. Performing activities pertaining to music, sports, any art, social work, sleep, etc have found to be some of the commonly used techniques to escape the ill effect of being possessed by anger.

4. Treat yourself to good food, shop (or if you cannot afford even window shopping has been found to be effective), have passionate sex, listen to good music, and exercise vigorously.

5. A very intelligent way of overcoming anger or depression is to engineer a small triumph. Trivial activities like cleaning your shelf, cleaning your desk, etc can result in added motivation and satisfaction.

6. The best mood leveler for all emotions – anger, joy and grief - is praying. Praying to any form or formless being brings a person to a normal state.

A popular and wrong notion that most people have is that, ventilation of one’s anger is a correct way of getting rid of it. But as mentioned earlier, anger builds on anger and the more one gives room to express and act on it, the angrier one gets. Techniques like punching pillows, sand bags, shouting out loud, etc are not recommended as good techniques to relieve oneself of anger.

Thus we have seen how such an important factor – Emotional Intelligence has to be studied and researched in depth to reveal the true measure of strength and success in living beings. It would be my endeavor to relate the concepts of increasing one’s EI with help of certain praying techniques viz. Japa (n Hinduism), Rosary prayer (Christianity) and Kalma (in Islam). Almost all religions have prescribed the remedy of repeating a certain word, name or mantra to attain various benefits. I am pursuing some experiential research on this aspect and will share my findings with all of you, when I discover something substantial.