ANGER

Remember that anger is an emotion, and an emotion is always warm, even hot. When a person gets angry, she/he first tend to clench, the voice rises, muscles tense, the body becomes rigid. So deliberately oppose the heat of this emotion with coolness—freeze it out. Deliberately, by an act of will, keep your fists or teeth from clenching. Hold your fingers out straight. Deliberately reduce your tone; bring it down to a whisper. Remember that it is difficult to argue in a whisper.

Anger expresses the accumulated vehemence of a multitude of minor irritations. These irritations, each rather small in itself, gather force by reason of the one being added to the other, finally blaze forth in a fury that often leaves us ebashed at ourselves. Make a list of everything that irritates you. No matter how inconsequential it may be or how silly each is, list it just the same. This will dry up the tiny revulets that feed the great river of anger.

When a hurt-feeling situation arises, get it straightened out as quickly as possible. Go to someone you trust and pour it out to him until not a vestige of it remains within you. Then forget it.

Pray for the person who has hurt your feelings. Continue this until you feel the malice fading away. Sometimes you may have to pray for quite a while to achieve that result.

—Normal Vincent Peale