Big shoutout to folks who are all the rage
Robin Hood heartthrob Jonas Armstrong looks every bit the tough guy he is on screen – but it seems he’s turned his back on his wild past for a quiet life.
I chatted to the screen star on his chilled-out holiday in Goa, where he went to relax after a
Rbusy period of filming. Fresh from the gym and sporting a newly shaven head, the Dublin-born actor – who played a badass criminal in gripping Channel 5 thriller Coma this week – said: “I have been volatile in my past, I have made mistakes.
“Now that I’m an older, wiser age. I’m full of it. Life is full of irritations and, as my husband will attest, I like to point out every single one of them. He says that I start most sentences with: “Do you know what’s annoying?” Before launching into a veinpulsing rant. Often, it’s people. From the snippy school-gate mum to the bad driver, the rude receptionist and the noisy eater on the train, there’s enough to shred anyone’s nerves.
Do I wish my husband would breathe more quietly? Do I wish he wouldn’t spend 45 minutes clattering around the kitchen to make a “proper” coffee? These are all reasonable grievances. The average person is driven nuts by something beyond their control several times a day. Not a person to bottle up my feelings, I like to vent. In the words of Frozen’s Elsa: Let. It. Go. But apparently, venting only makes things worse. Research has revealed that while getting things off your chest may feel good in the moment, in the long term, it’s not effective for reducing rage. Busting the myth that if we’re angry we need to blow off steam, the study says we need to lower our “physiological arousal”. In other words, we need to calm the hell down, not wind ourselves up. Researchers say activities like jogging and boxing just get us more man, I try to live my life in a different manner.”
Jonas, who also starred alongside Tom Cruise in 2014 movie Edge of Tomorrow, has had a few run-ins with the law, but reckons he’s changed.
“I’m in a good place now,” he says. These days, thankfully, he’s just a bad boy on screen. worked up, as they get the blood pumping.
The study, published in Clinical Psychology Review, suggests different techniques to address stress, such as meditation or ball sports.
So the next time a certain budget airline hikes up its price before my eyes (yes, Ryanair I mean you) or a call centre cuts me off, what should I do? Run outside and play netball?
We all deal with daily stress and life admin that we now refer to lovingly as “the mental load”. And post-covid, there is heightened anxiety so it’s no wonder we’re all prone to moaning.
One author of the study said the research was partly prompted by the rising popularity of rage rooms, which promote destroying things like glass, plates and electronics, to smash through those angry feelings. Sounds amazing.
Clearly scientists want to debunk this strategy, but I’m now just wondering where my nearest rage room is. And if there isn’t one near me? Well of course, I’ll be furious.
But this does make me think.
If we all just took a breath and counted to 10 – if we let it go quietly, perhaps to dolphin music, rather than loudly and with wild hand gestures – would we all be more zen? Is yoga better than yelling?
It feels like a stretch…
Modern life is no good for my blood pressure