1Pick the news channel you cannot stand and watch ten minutes of it on purpose. The only job is to notice what rises in you and let it go by.
Real provocation turns up when you are least ready for it. This gives you the feeling with nothing at stake: the indignation, the tightening, the urge to argue with a screen. Watch it come and watch it go, then stop while it is still comfortably manageable.
Islamic evidence
Only those who are steadfast in patience, only those who are blessed with great righteousness, will attain to such goodness (Quran 41:35). The verse is about answering a bad turn with a better one, which is the capacity this rehearsal is building.
“but only those who are steadfast in patience, only those who are blessed with great righteousness, will attain to such goodness”
Qur'an 41:35
Psychological evidence
A randomised trial with young people who had high levels of worry and rumination found that a six week group training reduced the later onset of anxiety and depression. That supports building a skill before the crisis rather than during it. It was a prevention trial in young people, not a study of deliberately winding yourself up, so the parallel is with the timing rather than the method.
Topper M, Emmelkamp PM, Watkins E, Ehring T. (2017). Behaviour research and therapy · doi
Review detail
Why it works. Practising the response while genuinely stirred is what makes it available when it is a person and not a screen.
When not to. Choose material that irritates rather than material that frightens, and leave it alone if it touches something you have actually lived through.