I take deep breaths when I feel overwhelmed.

The odd thing is not that it works. It is that you can know it works and still not do it.

Same as sitting in a stuffy room for an hour with a window three feet away. The knowledge is present and completely inert, because the state that most needs the remedy is the state least able to recall that the remedy exists. Which is why people leave notes on the wall, or hand the job to somebody else — the friend who says hang on, breathe, before you answer that.