1The aim is not to stop feeling angry. It is to stretch the time between the feeling arriving and you doing anything about it, from no seconds to a few.
That target has the advantage of being honest and checkable. You can ask whether you got a moment this time that you did not get last time. The anger will still turn up and make its noise, and you can stand there while it does without joining in.
Islamic evidence
If you are steadfast and mindful of God, that is the best course (Quran 3:186). It is said about being hurt and provoked by others, which is where the extra seconds are needed.
“you are sure to be tested through your possessions and persons; you are sure to hear much that is hurtful from those who were given the Scripture before you and from those who associate others with God. If you are steadfast and mindful of God, that is the…”
Qur'an 3:186
Psychological evidence
In a platform trial of metacognitive therapy for treatment resistant depression, an approach that works on a person's relationship to their own thinking rather than on its content, large improvements were maintained at six and twelve months. The trial was uncontrolled, so it cannot separate the treatment from time passing. It fits the idea that changing how you stand towards an inner state, rather than removing it, can hold.
Wells A, Fisher P, Myers S, Wheatley J, Patel T, Brewin CR. (2012). Behaviour research and therapy · doi
Review detail
Why it works. You do not need the feeling to stop, only enough time to decide what to do with it.
Feedback
none yet2Notice how much of the tightness in you is the verdict you are passing. As the judging comes down, the body tends to come down with it.
This is something you can test rather than something to believe. Catch yourself narrating: he always does this, she has no respect, typical. Then describe the same scene with nothing added, only what actually happened, and see what your shoulders do.
Islamic evidence
Do not grieve over them; do not be distressed by their scheming (Quran 16:127). The instruction is about how much room you hand over to what someone else did.
“So [Prophet] be steadfast: your steadfastness comes only from God. Do not grieve over them; do not be distressed by their scheming”
Qur'an 16:127
Psychological evidence
In an analysis within a trial of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, the capacity to stand back from your own thinking rose in the people doing that practice and not in those taking medication. That is one specific skill, measured during recovery from depression, and it is not a study of anger or of blame. What it does suggest is that this stepping back is trainable and that it came from doing the practice.
Peter Bieling; Lance L. Hawley; Richard T. Bloch; Kathleen Corcoran; Robert D. Levitan; L. Trevor Young (2012). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi
Review detail
Why it works. Anger is largely built out of the verdict, so easing the verdict takes away its fuel.