The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

3-minute meditation: Let go of anger before sending that text

Anger is a challenging emotion to process. This simple mindfulness exercise can help you release the tension and avoid reacting in the moment.

An illustration of a woman closing her eyes while a flower blooms in her mind
(Illustration by Marine Buffard for The Washington Post )
2 min

In today’s fast-paced world, anger can do a lot of damage. It only takes seconds to fire off an angry text, Slack message or email — which can harm relationships and lead to feelings of regret.

When we are angry the primal part of the brain takes over, often referred to as an amygdala hijack. This means the more rational cognitive part of our brain is offline. We are in full threat mode, which can cause us to say or do something in the heat of the moment that we would never say at other times.

This simple mindfulness exercise can help you release the tension and avoid reacting in the moment. You can sit down or stand for this, whatever feels most comfortable. Keep reading for more guidance on coping with anger.

How to release anger

This exercise is intended to be used whenever someone feels like anger or frustration is boiling up.

There’s nothing wrong with getting angry — it happens to everyone. But anger is a more challenging emotion to process because it can feel so unpleasant.

It may help to think about why you feel angry.

Anger can arise because you feel let down, you feel ashamed, you feel judged, or blamed or hurt in some way. Or it may be that you are just overtired and your fuse is short. Sometimes the smallest of things can tip us over the edge.

Feeling angry doesn’t feel good. This meditation won’t resolve the underlying problem that led to anger, but it will help you cope with it and allow you to think more rationally about how to address it in a constructive way.

Eve Lewis Prieto is a Headspace meditation teacher in Los Angeles. You can find her on Instagram @meditatewitheve where she holds a live meditation every Monday.

Well+Being and Headspace have teamed up to bring you short meditations for everyday life. To learn more about our partnership, please read here.

Read more from Well+Being

Well+Being shares news and advice for living well every day. Sign up for our newsletter to get tips directly in your inbox.

Across the life span, boys and men are more likely to die than girls and women.

SuperAgers have lessons for us about longevity, cognitive health as we age

Popular keto and paleo diets aren’t helping your heart

Quiz: Are you an Ableist?

Exercise leads to sharper thinking and a healthier brain.

Loading...