Here are five more tips for quick anger management at work:

1. Stop every so often throughout your day and do a check in with how you are feeling. Just stop and ask, “How am I feeling right now?” Do I feel speedy, nervous, relaxed, grounded, frantic, on the verge of anger, etc. Whatever it is, just notice how you are doing. Then take a few breaths and allow yourself to settle into your chair, or the floor if you are standing. This will help you slow down and curb any excessive speed in your state of mind.

2. Come up with a personal slogan that you repeat to yourself while you are at work from time to time. For example, “Other people’s state of mind has nothing to do with me.” Or “I can slow down, feel my body, and enjoy my day.” Come up with something personal that makes sense to you. Then create a reminder system to help you remember to say it. For example, make a commitment to yourself that every time you stand up or sit down, you will say your slogan.

3. If you become angry at something, try this mental/physical grounding process to help you get grounded and find your center again: Count backwards from ten to one, and with each count, squeeze one of your fingers with the opposite fist. Start with the pinky finger of one hand, and squeeze it with 10, then the ring finger with 9, etc. switching hands at 5. The idea is that by 1, your anger has diminished down to a manageable level or is gone completely.

4. A great anger management technique is to mentally say to yourself, “I am angry at ______(fill in the blank) because ________(fill in the blank). This shifts your brain’s activity from the limbic or reptilian brain which is where anger gets lodged, into the cortex, which is the more evolved ‘higher’ brain or ‘thinking’ brain, where reason and self control are centered. By shifting your mental activity from being deeply engrossed in the anger to the higher reasoning brain functions, it helps to short circuit the out of control aspect of anger. In the longer term if you work at this consistently, over time you can retrain your neural pathways and mental habits to be less dominated by the knee jerk response of anger.

5. If you are alone, close your eyes and simply breathe. Feel your body and feel the anger in your body, and breathe it in and breathe it out. This can allow you to really be present with your anger, and grounding in the body this way gives you a more solid handle to actually take charge of your state of mind.

By Craig Mollins