Five minutesUnder stressBody basedAnger

Press ups on clenched fists give the hands something close to striking, while the effort and the counting take the story out of it.

The shape of the movement is part of why it satisfies, and the breathing it forces is what stops it being a rehearsal. Count the reps, keep the breath steady, and if you catch yourself narrating the argument between sets, slow the breathing until the narration goes quiet. Ten is usually plenty.

Qur’an and Sunnah

Believers, remember God often (Quran 33:41). Short and frequent is the shape being described, which is also what makes a set of press ups a habit you can keep rather than a project.

يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرࣰ ا كَثِيرࣰ ا

Believers, remember God often

Qur’an 33:41read it in the library

Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.

What the research says

A meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials found resistance exercise training reduced depressive symptoms, and the benefit was largely independent of how much strength people actually gained. That points to something in the doing rather than in the result, which is the part that carries over here. It is evidence about mood across weeks, not about settling down in the next five minutes.

Gordon BR, McDowell CP, Hallgren M, Meyer JD, Lyons M, Herring MP. (2018). Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms: Meta-analysis and Meta-regression Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.. JAMA psychiatry doi

Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.

Why it works

Hard effort burns off the charge while counting and breathing crowd out the angry commentary.

When not to

Skip this if your wrists, shoulders or heart make hard exertion unwise, and take a fast walk instead.

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

Try a small dab of something cooling on the tip of your nose before a meal you expect to be tense. The cool spot gives your attention somewhere ordinary to sit.

A minuteCool the body first

Shouting it out does not empty the tank. Going over it loudly, in your head or at somebody, tends to keep the anger topped up rather than draining it.

Twenty minutesCool the body first

Movement can settle you or wind you further up, and the difference is mostly what your mind is doing while you move.

Twenty minutesCool the body first