Areas › Anger

Anger

Almost nobody wants to be the person who says the thing they cannot take back. The window between the surge and the words is short and it can be widened. That is most of what this area is about, along with the fear or hurt that anger is usually protecting.

Narrowed down

2 practices

Cool the body first Twenty minutes Any ordinary day Clear all

Theme · Cool the body first

What anger actually is 8 The moment before you snap 5 The fear underneath anger 5 When anger turns to harm 4 Righteous anger and perfectionism 4 Practising under provocation 3 Growing empathy 3 Equanimity and perspective 2 Choosing your response 2 Making it stick 2 Cool the body first 2 Anger, alcohol and the body 2 What you are actually defending 1

How long you have · Twenty minutes

A minute 8 Five minutes 13 Twenty minutes 2 Longer 2

Approach

Core 1 Body based 1

When · Any ordinary day

Any ordinary day 2 Under stress 2 After a row 2

Anger numbs. If it is doing the work of a painkiller for you, it will be hard to put down while the pain underneath is still untreated.

Ask what tends to be there in the half hour before you flare: a bit of shame, feeling small, an old fear about being left. The anger often arrives to…

Twenty minutesCool the body firstCoreQur’an 94:1

If the irritability came in alongside a low patch, or a spell of racing thoughts and hardly any sleep, have the mood looked at rather than treating the temper on its own.

Irritability is part of depression, and it belongs to the mixed and elevated states of bipolar disorder too. Anger skills are still worth having, and…

Twenty minutesCool the body firstBody basedQur’an 78:9