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.
What works for this
Anger control, with distress tolerance
Anger has a runway, and the earlier you step onto it the less force you need. The work is in the seconds before, not in the explosion, and it starts with the body rather than the thought.
One move, today
Name the first physical sign you get. Jaw, chest, hands, heat in the face. That sign is your only warning, and noticing it is the whole skill.
What matches
3 practicesWhen somebody manages a partner through anger, it is worth asking what the control is guarding. Very often the answer is a fear of being left.
Telling someone that nobody else would have them is that fear turned into a weapon, and it usually arrives when the person feels furthest away.…
There is a difference between stepping out and storming out, and most of it sits in whether the other person knows you are coming back.
Two failures sit either side of this one. The first is staying in the room until something is said that cannot be unsaid. The second is going quiet…
Have three or four openers ready before you need them. For what it is worth. Can I run something by you. You might not like this, so give me the benefit of the doubt.
When you are stirred up you will not compose diplomatic language on the spot, so the phrases have to be picked in advance and worn in. Say them aloud…
