An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.
Seneca said that “delay is the greatest remedy for anger.” That’s the truth.
Delay is the best way to let your mind clear, to make sure that anger doesn’t drive you to do something you regret. Anger is an exaggerator. It magnifies the worst in every situation. Anger is an exacerbator too. It takes a bad situation and makes it worse with the overreaction it produces in us.
Delay will help you make sure that doesn’t happen, that anger doesn’t win. The next time you’re angry, take five deep breaths and see if you can get yourself that wound up again. It’s next to impossible.
Now, no one is saying you can’t respond at all. You probably will have to address whatever has made your blood boil. You will have to say something. Your kids do need to learn that lying is not acceptable, talking back to their mother will not be tolerated, leaving the stove on could burn the house down. But wait a minute. Take a walk. Put a reminder down to bring it up tomorrow. Deal with it when you get home from work. Let cooler heads prevail.
Make it a teachable moment. Teach them that it’s possible to control how you react.
—Cato The Elder