What do you do when you get angry?
Do you blast away with sub-machine gun rapid fire?
Or do you just let it boil, fester then break free like crazy when it feels like?
I do both of those at different times but I prefer when I pull a mull, switch, sleep and fix on my anger. Let me give you an example so that you can see exactly what this technique is. You may already have pulled your own ‘mull, switch, sleep and fix’!
I got a bit upset yesterday. I botched a job then got upset when it was rejected. To make it worse, I was drop dead tired from being up too early for too many nights in a row. So the anger felt bigger, swelled by exhaustion.
Mull
I lectured the room, the paintings on the wall and my computer. Even the fan got a bit of it, I suppose. Then I mulled and muttered to myself about all manner of things to do with the particular job and what I would love to do with it.
Switch, Sleep
Since it was already after seven and I was too tired and upset to do anything that would end up right, I had dinner with my kids, got them to bed, caught up on news then went straight to sleep. Before that, I did manage to remember to deep breathe a bit into my upset heart area before dropping off into wonderful oblivion.
More Expression Then the Fix
Then I woke up, looked over the botched job again and quarreled with it enough to make my children laugh at me. After getting them off to school, I let the anger go. I decided to flush it down the figurative toilet, fixed what had to be fixed and re-submitted it for subsequent approval.
Pull the Express, Mull, Switch, Sleep and Fix Technique Conclusion
Step by step, that is the Express, Mull, Switch, Sleep and Fix Anger strategy. All the stages are important because they all build on one another. Trying to rush past any one of them tends to cause you to need to loop back to what you missed.
The expression and mull phases are especially important. They help to clear the inner energy by releasing the frustration and upset so that calm insights can gradually take their place. The next time you get mad, pull the Express, Mull, Switch, Sleep and Fix on your anger, then move on.
