“When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”

—Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States

Image from Unsplash by Piotr Miazga

Have you ever considered how similar anger is to a bowl of hot soup?

This past winter, we discovered that our grandkids love my homemade chicken soup. They love slurping up the noodles and then lifting the bowl to drink every last drop of goodness.

Teaching them to blow on their spoons and waiting until the soup cools on its own is a lesson they quickly learned!

How do you cool things off when tempers flare?

Counting to 10, 100, or more is a proven method to allow boiling emotions to subside and let a cooler head prevail.

EXERCISE:

What other chicken soup remedies do you use when faced with heated emotions?

Where and with whom would Jefferson’s counting technique prevent things from overheating in the first place?