Areas › Anger › Cool the body first
The alarm system in you responds to what your body does more readily than to what you tell it. Sit down, unclench, breathe out slowly, and only then try to reason with yourself.
Reasoning does work, just not at the top of the curve. Wait until the arousal has come down a little, then think about what happened, and you will find that you can. Try it the other way round and you will produce arguments that sound convincing and change nothing.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Keep up the prayer: prayer restrains outrageous and unacceptable behaviour (Quran 29:45). A bodily practice is linked directly to what a person does not end up doing.
ٱتۡلُ مَآ أُوحِيَ إِلَيۡكَ مِنَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبِ وَأَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَۖ إِنَّ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ تَنۡهَىٰ عَنِ ٱلۡفَحۡشَآءِ وَٱلۡمُنكَرِۗ وَلَذِكۡرُ ٱللَّهِ أَكۡبَرُۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعۡلَمُ مَا تَصۡنَعُونَ
[Prophet], recite what has been revealed to you of the Scripture; keep up the prayer: prayer restrains outrageous and unacceptable behaviour. Remembering God is greater: God knows everything you are doing
Qur’an 29:45read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
In a randomised clinical trial, daily slow breathing training altered a brain marker of the arousal system in younger adults, which is fairly direct evidence that breathing reaches the machinery of alarm. A brain marker is not the same as feeling settled, and the trial ran in young adults over a short period. The direction is clear enough to act on.
Bachman SL, Cole S, Yoo HJ, Nashiro K, Min J, Mercer N, Nasseri P, Thayer JF, Lehrer P, Mather M. (2023). Daily heart rate variability biofeedback training decreases locus coeruleus MRI contrast in younger adults in a randomized clinical trial.. International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Signals coming from the body reach the threat system faster than an argument does.
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
While you drink, follow the cold going down the back of your throat. It turns a sip into half a minute of attention resting somewhere other than the argument.
Angry eyes are not unfocused, they are too focused. Everything funnels down onto the person or thing in front of you and the rest of the room goes missing.
People arrive at anger work braced for a lecture and an instruction to breathe deeply. Handing them something they did not see coming buys you their attention.