#78 Just Bin It

Think back to a time you felt really angry, perhaps after you argued with a colleague or family member.

Did you do anything to calm down, like distract yourself or reframe the situation?

While these approaches can work, one small yet rigorous Japanese study revealed a remarkably simple technique to reduce anger:  writing down your thoughts, then discarding them.

Via two experiments, research participants wrote essays, and then received insulting feedback to provoke anger.  Next, while all participants wrote down their angry thoughts, some were instructed to set that paper aside, while others were told to throw it in the trash or shred it.  Those that disposed of it felt calmer.

According to researcher Nobuyuki Kawai, “We expected that our method would suppress anger to some extent, however we were amazed that anger was eliminated almost entirely.”

(𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥?  𝘚𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭?  𝘔𝘦, 𝘵𝘰𝘰 . . . 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘺!)