My friend Jane sent me a link to a Wall Street Journal article about Tiger Woods and his angry outbursts during golf games. Numerous research studies have shown that exploding with anger is not cathartic, as people once suggested. In fact, yelling, steaming, throwing things, lashing out physically, and pitching a fit are not good for you (unless you’re in physical danger, of course!). In The Language of Emotions, I write that constantly expressing emotions wears a kind of groove in your brain, and if you’re not careful, you can teach your brain that anger means “explode.”
Tiger Woods is trying to change that. As he returns to public life and golf after the discovery of his serial infidelity, Woods says “he is turning over a new leaf. ‘I am actually going to try and obviously not get as hot when I play.’”
This is a good idea, but the article asks whether it will be possible for Woods to control his anger now, when there’s so much more at stake, and when he’s under such intense scrutiny.
It’s a good question.
