This evening, in the face of a teenager shouting at me to go away, I stayed calm. I felt that pent up energy in my stomach, but didn’t react to it. After everything had settled down, I could still feel it sitting there. It’s remarkable how quickly kids, even teens, move past a stressful situation. I think it gets harder as you get older.

So now I have these feelings that I need to defuse, which is something I’m still working on. Sometimes going for a walk helps so I can think the whole situation through. Sometimes it’s doing something mindless to forget, like watching rugby, the next episode in a series, or doing a jigsaw puzzle (I’m 44, it's OK). Sometimes nothing seems to work, apart from getting to the end of the day and just going to bed. But that’s OK if I’ve managed to stay calm. My REM can do the rest.