12 Clever Tricks to Regain Your Cool Quickly

Have you ever lost your cool around your child and felt bad about it later?  If someone in your family is acting out, it seems all too easy to become upset and resort to anger and shouting.  Keeping calm is important in such situations.  If we can respond reasonably in the heat of the moment, positive outcomes are much more likely.

Here are 12 tricks that can help you keep your cool:

1. Breathe in, tense, and release your muscles as you exhale.
2. Roll your shoulders.
3. Squeeze something.
4. Suck on something sweet.
5. Chew gum.
6. Say how you feel, using "I" statements instead of "you" statements.
7. Find a pressure point.
8. Talk low. Talk slow.
9. Drink a glass of water.
10. Smile.
11. Turn the lights down.
12. Walk away.

These techniques are explained by Dr. Cameron Caswell in much greater detail in the article at this website, so check it out!