Thanks everyone for sharing your discoveries. BlackPup's mention of slowing down when thoughts get racy reminded me of something I do with my son. He often notices before I do that I am starting to operate in hyperspeed so we came up with this game of sorts. We call it the slow motion game. When he notices I am talking really fast or doing something really fast he will call out for the slow motion game. It is the signal for us to both start doing whatever whe are doing in slow motion. Talk in slow motion, do the dishes in slow motion, cut the veggies... whatever we are doing we do it really slowly. Like a slow motion movie. 9 times out of 10 we end up laughing at some point. But it really works. If he just told me to slow down chances are I would react badly. This way, because I have given him permission to make the call I have to do it.

Another technique I use, particularly if I am feeling angry and ready to ripe someone's face off in a wild rage is to whisper. I don't let my voice rise above a whisper. Especially if I am mad. It is amazing how well it calms my rage.

I learned this from trying to discipline my son when he was younger. I realized one day that yelling at him was getting me nowhere. If anything it just made me more upset. He just seemed to be able to ignore me no matter how loud I spoke but if I whispered he listened. He had to pay attention to hear me so suddenly I had his full attention. The calming effect was an added bonus and it made me think it might work in other situation too so now I use it whenever I feel the anger rising.

Even better is a slow talking whisper. It is especially good if I am coping with a migraine.