Seneca wrote a whole book on anger, calling it a brief madness that harms the angry person most of all. He noticed how anger promises to fix things and almost always makes them worse. When something provokes you today, you don't have to swallow the feeling, but you can slow down before it drives. Ask whether the heat is actually helping, or just burning you. Often the steadier response, the pause, the lowered voice, the question instead of the accusation, gets you further and costs you less. Your calm isn't weakness. It's the thing anger is trying to steal, and it's worth protecting.

Inspired by the old idea of anger harms the angry most. Written by Ugo Charles.