Things That Tick Me Off (Guided Journals)

A combination anger management course and journal wrapped up in one tidy little cover, Things That Tick Me Off is the perfect tool for both expressing and understanding those parts of life that just have a way of getting under your skin. Author Joan Mazza (From Dreams to Discovery, Dream Back Your Life) looks at anger as a positive tool, one that shouldn't be discarded or ignored, but expressed appropriately and used for greater self-knowledge. By combining specific guidance with ample blank pages, she has created a perfect tool to help you examine and come to terms with all aspects of anger, from your childhood indoctrination into anger expression to the bozo who cut you off on the freeway this morning.

Through a teaching method of specific writing prompts, Mazza provides a clear start and finish for this journal. A variety of prompts is included in each section; you choose the ones that seem the most meaningful to you, grab a pen, and get down to business. Four to six blank pages are given for each section of prompts, most having either a small illustration or quote meant to be entertaining or instructive, such as "Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor," from Ambrose Bierce. Some prompts are given in a worksheet format, with words to circle that best describe your anger and sentences or lists to fill in. Home, work, family, current events, life values, and victimization are some of the specific topics; after the first section regarding your anger history has been completed, there's no reason you couldn't skip around the chapters and fill in the most personally relevant first. So blow your top! Have kittens! Get a bee in your bonnet! Now you'll have the perfect outlet--it sure beats road rage. --Jill Lightner