Practices

Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.

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45 practices

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Whatever is driving it, behaviour that frightens someone is frightening. The reason behind it does not soften what it was like to stand on the other side of it.

Two people can do something that looks identical from outside and mean quite different things by it. That difference matters for what will help the…

A minuteWhen anger turns to harmCoreQur’an 24:15One line of research

The person you love and the person who frightened you are one person, and you are not obliged to decide which of them is the real one. Both were in the room.

People tend to collapse this in one direction or the other. Either the frightening one is the truth and every kind thing was an act, or the kind one…

Five minutesWhen anger turns to harmCoreQur’an 4:110One line of research

Try swapping the word. Instead of I got aggressive, try I was defending myself, because that is much closer to what your body thought it was doing at the time.

The word you reach for decides what happens next. Aggressive is a verdict on your character, and verdicts send people into hiding. Defending yourself…

A minuteThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 20:67One line of research

Anger is often a bluff, a show of size put on by something that feels small. Knowing that is not an insult to you, it is probably the most useful thing you can know about it.

The bluff works on other people, and it works on you too, which is why the voice gets biggest right at the moment you feel most exposed. You do not…

A minuteThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 4:28One line of research

Looking for a whole subject rather than a single practice? Start from the nine areas.

Losing your temper is the easy move. Staying with the fear underneath is the hard one, in the way that dropping something is easier than holding it steady on your fingertip.

This matters most if some part of you is proud of the temper. Nothing about it is strong, it is simply quicker, and quick is what you reach for when…

A minuteThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 2:38One line of research

Holding yourself in is effortful for everybody, every time. When it slips you have not uncovered a permanent fault in yourself.

The story people tell after a lapse usually does more damage than the lapse. One bad evening becomes proof, proof becomes despair, and despair makes…

A minuteThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 4:28One line of research

After a flare, the more useful question is not why you got angry. It is what felt at risk in that moment.

Answers tend to be smaller and more embarrassing than the row that followed. Being made to look a fool in front of your kids. Being left. Being taken…

Five minutesThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 20:45One line of research

Fear moves you away from what frightens you. Anger turns you round and marches you into it, which is how something meant to keep you safe becomes the thing that puts you in danger.

If you believe the shouting protects you, follow it all the way to the end of an evening and see what it protected. Usually the other person hardens,…

Five minutesThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 20:44One line of research

When anger turns up, in you or in front of you, two questions do most of the work: what is the fear underneath this, and what would make that fear bearable without the anger?

The first question slows everything down, because a fear is usually easier to name than to defend. The second stops you at insight: if the fear is of…

Five minutesThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 20:46One line of research

Some of what teaches you most arrives rudely, from people you would not have chosen, at a time you did not pick. A provocation is often that kind of lesson.

This is not about being grateful to somebody who treated you badly. It is about what you do with the information afterwards. An ugly encounter can…

Five minutesThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 2:155One line of research

Treat a flare-up as a reading rather than a failure. It is telling you where something is sore.

Instead of the usual round of apology and self-disgust, get curious. What exactly set it off, what did it seem to put at risk, why that today and not…

Five minutesThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 15:97One line of research

Follow the chain. The anger points at a fear, and the fear points at what you believe is at stake. That last thing is what you are actually dealing with.

Once it has passed, ask what you were afraid of in that moment, then ask whether the threat was really there. Being spoken over is not the same as…

Twenty minutesThe fear underneath angerCoreQur’an 21:87One line of research

Those first three circles were reactions rather than actions. Something old moved your hand, and you learned what it had decided at the same moment everyone else did.

This is why people say, honestly, that they did not decide to say the thing they said. The words were out before anything you would call choosing had…

Five minutesChoosing your responseCoreQur’an 4:149One line of research

The relief people describe afterwards has little to do with clever insight. It is the feeling of being back behind the wheel, which is a large change if you have been living as though other people operate you.

She made me. He knows exactly which button to press. Both can be true about the provocation and still leave the response yours. Notice that this is…

Five minutesChoosing your responseCoreQur’an 64:14One line of research

Before you walk away, say when you are coming back.

Before you walk away from an argument today, name a time. "I need twenty minutes. I'll come find you at eight." Then go, and be back at eight. The…

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictCoreQur’an 30:21One line of research

Your body knows before you do. Learn its first signal.

Today, catch the first physical sign that you are escalating. Jaw tightening, chest heat, your voice getting faster. Not the third sign. The first.…

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictCoreQur’an 3:134One line of research

If you are standing and angry, sit down.

A physical change of position interrupts an escalating state more reliably than deciding to calm down. If you are standing when the argument…

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictCoreQur’an 42:37One line of research

Let one provocation pass entirely today.

Something will invite a response today: a tone, a comment, a look. Let one of them go completely. Not swallowed resentfully. Just not picked up.

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictCoreQur’an 3:134One line of research

Give up the last word once today.

You will notice the moment: the reply that would settle it, that you are entitled to. Let that one go. Not because you are wrong, but because being…

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictCoreQur’an 3:134One line of research

Have one phrase ready for the moment rage arrives.

Decide now what you will say to yourself when it rises, not what you will say to them. One short phrase, chosen in advance, used every time.…

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictCoreQur’an 3:134One line of research