Tiny Bubbles to Hack Huge Feelings

A teenage client once told me that blowing bubbles helped her manage anger.

She said it was hard to stay angry and blow bubbles at the same time.

“It can’t be done,” she said. “Bubbles are happy by nature. You have to let go of anger to blow a bubble.”

🤔

Now that I have two young grandsons, I can tell you this is absolutely true.

These two can be fighting over the basketball one minute, then squeal with laughter when one of them blows one of those giant face-covering bubbles.

You literally cannot blow bubbles while maintaining your anger.

The mechanics don’t work.

Blowing bubbles demands this weird surrender to something completely silly and joyful.

Your anger has to step aside for the simple focus of watching soap become something impossibly delicate and huge.

You can’t blow a decent bubble with those quick, chest-heavy breaths that come with anxiety.

The slower and deeper you breathe, the bigger and more stable the bubble becomes.

It’s like the bubble is teaching your nervous system how to calm down.

There’s something about the complete absurdity of it that cuts through whatever spiral you might be in.

Obviously this doesn’t replace therapy for anger management, but it’s a nice, illogical little hack that takes the edge off.

Try it and tell me it doesn’t work!