He was right.
The trick of the thing is to switch gears into gratitude before the anger is so overwhelming that you can't remember to do it. Once you're past the point of no return, you want to be angry more than you want to be anything else. So trying to be grateful will seem laughable to you as you feed your anger with more angry thoughts.
See, clearly, if I had been thinking about how blessed I am to have shelter and indoor plumbing I never would have karate chopped the toilet paper holder.
But this wisdom really does work when you can pull it off. I've headed off countless arguments, not by counting to ten but by quickly remembering to be thankful. Which is a lot easier to do if you make it a point to be thankful for a few minutes every single day. That way you're already in the mindset of gratitude, and you can tap into it whenever you need to.
So today I'm listing the things I'm grateful for.
But I'm also doing that every day... in an attempt to keep my relationships and my bathroom all in one piece.
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