14 DAY TRIAL // Stressful situations have the potential to bring the worst out of the best of us, but several coping strategies exist that can be successfully employed to prevent this from happening. One anger management technique is to force yourself to look at the big picture.
A useful exercise for accomplishing this is to picture yourself as a fly on the wall, looking at the scene that is going on (yourself included) as if it's happening somewhere else. Experts say that you can come to a truer understanding of your feelings when you can achieve this state, PsychCentral reports.
The strategy, called self-distancing, is tried and true, and easily available to anyone interested. “The secret is to not get immersed in your own anger and, instead, have a more detached view,” Ohio State University expert and lead study author, Dominik Mischkowski, says.
In a series of lab experiments, the team found that the technique works even immediately after participants were provoked outright. Just imagine what would happen if all angry people started controlling their aggression. Wouldn't that be swell?