The answer to the Big Question, “What do I need right now to be OK, and healthy in the long term?” is in part about calming yourself down….soothing yourself, or as psychologists sometimes say, affect regulation. We know that both external and internal anger triggers automatically activate your primitive brain which in turn stimulates your sympathetic nervous system to deliver chemicals and other signals preparing you for the fight or flight response. A significant anger management skill is to be able to catch yourself early in the Primitive Brain anger process by using some calming techniques to relax your mind and body.