Anger Management

I realised I had an anger management problem when, during a particularly bad week, I tried to throw the telly out the window (without even opening it first). The reason, I couldn’t get the parental lock off the telly and I needed to do my exercise DVD to get fit and de-stress. 

An extreme reaction? You betcha.

After that I told myself I would never get worked up again.

The next day an email brought me more problems. I tried to reply to it. My phone wouldn’t cooperate, so I threw that across the room. Luckily, it wasn’t broken.

These incidents left me realising that I had let things get on top of me. One of the reasons was I was in a hurry to get things done.

Once, I managed to calm down, I made myself a vow - that I'd never let myself get that worked up again. This meant doing a few things -

1. Not rushing to get things done. The people I was dealing with were taking all the time in the world, so why was I the one doing everything ASAP?
2. Taking time to sit down and watch some old comedy videos/DVDs. Well, they do say laughter is the best medicine. I howled with laughter through The Office up until the first part of the Christmas special that had me thinking 'is this rally comedy?'
3. Actually writing something I wanted to write instead of something I needed to. In my case that's The Waking Dead, my zombie novel set in Glasgow.
4. Chasing my rescue dog Benjy around the room and basically crawling about the floor with him. Ok, I looked stupid when anyone came in, but I had a good time.
5. Taking my Kalms. They have valerian that acts as a mild sedative.

Whatever you do to relax, remember you earnt it and you need it. Don't let it get to the stage where you're ready to throw a telly out a window that's not even opened.