To keep you from reaching that point of no return, we asked Stacey B. Daughters, a licensed clinical psychologist and the director of the Biobehavioral Research on Addiction and Emotion Lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for her best tips on preventing brewing rage from turning into an all-out anger spiral.
“To stop the anger spiral, you need to create space between your emotions and actions,” Daughters says. In other words, it can be helpful to interrupt your automatic (and often unproductive) reaction to anger before it completely takes over and drives your behavior. Brief (as in 10 minutes or less) guided meditations or breathing exercises are one way to do that, but if you’re in no mood for that advice, try moving around.