Even the most seemingly ridiculous of the suggestions below usually help to calm yourself.
- Take a cold shower
- Memorize a poem or scripture
- Take out the garbage
- Go to the convenience store and buy a cup of coffee
- Walk the dog
- Call a friend on the phone
- Rub Vicks Vapor Run under your nose
- Wash the dishes
One of the best techniques of all is to wait 15 minutes before reacting to a situation, and then ask yourself if you can wait another 15 minutes, and so on.