Child’s question: How can I control my temper?
Once we’re aware of our anger, we can be gentle with it. Don’t try to control your anger. As soon as you try to control it, this may start a fight between you and your temper. Instead, just be with it and accept it. Once you’ve sat with your anger for a while, you will find that it doesn’t need to explode. It will transform on its own, without hurting anyone.

Reprinted from Is Nothing Something?: Kids’ Questions and Zen Answers About Life, Death, Family, Friendship, and Everything in Between (2014) by Thich Nhat Hanh with permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, parallax.org.