Areas › Anger › Choosing your response
Your body gets up in the morning and your mind often does not. Half a day can go by in a sort of waking dream, and whatever meets you in it gets the sleepwalker's answer.
So make waking the moment you decide something, before the day has handed you anything to react to. Thirty seconds on the edge of the bed will do: today I will notice once before I answer. Hanging it on something that already happens every morning means you never have to remember to find a time for it.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Let them pardon and forgive. Do you not wish that God should forgive you? (Quran 24:22). Deciding to overlook things is far easier at the start of a day than in the middle of one, while nobody has done anything yet.
وَلَا يَأۡتَلِ أُوْلُواْ ٱلۡفَضۡلِ مِنكُمۡ وَٱلسَّعَةِ أَن يُؤۡتُوٓاْ أُوْلِي ٱلۡقُرۡبَىٰ وَٱلۡمَسَٰكِينَ وَٱلۡمُهَٰجِرِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِۖ وَلۡيَعۡفُواْ وَلۡيَصۡفَحُوٓاْۗ أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أَن يَغۡفِرَ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمۡۚ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورࣱ رَّحِيمٌ
Those who have been graced with bounty and plenty should not swear that they will [no longer] give to kinsmen, the poor, those who emigrated in God’s way: let them pardon and forgive. Do you not wish that God should forgive you? God is most forgiving and merciful
Qur’an 24:22read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
In a survey of 286 adults aged 18 to 88, older adults reported letting anger out less and dwelling on emotional events less, and those differences related to their well being, which suggests these patterns are not fixed for life. What it cannot tell you is whether a morning intention shifts them, since nobody tested that. It is offered as a reason to think the settings move at all.
Phillips LH, Phillips LH, Henry JD, Hosie JA, Milne AB. (2006). Age, anger regulation and well-being.. Aging & mental health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
A moment that comes round on its own is the easiest place to hang a new intention.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Running on autopilot is not the problem in itself. Patience, letting things go and wishing people well can all become automatic, and then they are there without you having to summon them.
If you are on autopilot, the part of you that would notice is asleep as well. So do not count on waking yourself in the moment, arrange for something outside you to do the waking.
The circle was never the point. Any break in a running routine will do, because the break itself is what puts you back in the driving seat for a moment.