Anger is bad for the body. Studies have long linked this maddening emotion with high blood pressure, increased heart rate, soaring stress hormones, and decreased immune system response. Stress can also lead to lack of sleep and unhealthy habits, like smoking, drinking, and poor eating practices.

The experts at the spa destination Canyon Ranch say the best anger solution is not to express or repress the feeling but to create less of it.

Say you're driving to an appointment, you're short on time, and the driver ahead of you is making slow progress, causing you to get caught behind several red lights. It would be easy to get angry because driving is depersonalized -- we're indifferent to other drivers' needs because we don't know them. Practicing empathy, though, can prevent anger from unfolding. Try to imagine the other driver as someone you know and love. It might just make it easier to understand the reasons for the drivers' actions.

Read on for a calming five-step strategy for defusing anger.

• Recognize your anger as an indication that you're "hooked" by some situation. Accept when it's time to do something different.

• Pause to calm your physical body. Take a deep breath and relax your muscles.

• Focus your attention on your heart. Imagine you're breathing through your heart.

• Bring to mind a time or situation when you felt or expressed love. Make the memory real; feel it, see it, hear it.
  

• Return to the hooked situation and consider whether there is anything you can appreciate about the situation now.