What makes you angry or upset? Can you spare twenty minutes to improve your health and your life? Write it out. (If you have symptoms of heart disease, call your doctor.)

Difficulty Level: average to hard      Time Required: 15 minutes to 1 hour

1. If you're overscheduled today, or strictly Type A, pencil in 15 or 20 minutes for writing time.
2. Set your timer or alarm for 5 minutes.
3. Make a quick list of all the things in your life that anger, annoy, irritate, worry, stress, or frustrate you.
4. If you aren't finished with your list when the alarm goes off, set the timer again and write for five minutes more.
5. Find the worst or most immediate thing on the list -- the thing that makes you angriest or is causing you the most trouble right this minute.
6. Take a couple deep breaths.
7. Set the timer for ten minutes.
8. On the largest piece of paper you can find, write the word or words that best summarize this anger-provoking item. Circle it. Stab it with your pen.
9. Now, draw a series of arrows out from the circled word. Write other words or phrases associated with this maddening person or thing. Use a big red marker and furious strokes to form a web of arrows and circled words.
10. Keep at it until you run out of paper or time. If you're still furious, or if you prefer, try another of these methods.
11. Write all your thoughts about this maddening person or thing, as quickly as you can.
12. Write a letter to the person or people involved. (If the source of your anger is an institution, place, or other object, personify it.) Tell them all the things you can't say out loud.
13. Now reread what you've written. If you're by yourself, read it out loud.
14. List any constructive action you might take, or things to write about next time.
15. Schedule your next writing session.
    

1. Schedule regular writing sessions with yourself.
2. Try to make a few minutes to write whenever things feel out of control.
3. When you can sit still, read Kathleen Adams' Journal to the Self or Eldonna Bouton's Loose Ends, two great books about writing through problems.