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Areas › Anger › Cool the body first
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.
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.
الأحزاب
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.
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.
Hard effort burns off the charge while counting and breathing crowd out the angry commentary.
Skip this if your wrists, shoulders or heart make hard exertion unwise, and take a fast walk instead.
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.
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.
Movement can settle you or wind you further up, and the difference is mostly what your mind is doing while you move.