How do you deal with anger?

[Glassunion]

I've been struggling with an incident that occurred a few days ago, and it just isn't sitting right with me. Nothing really happened during the incident, but I cannot shake how it left me feeling.

I was on my motorcycle heading into town (towards my favorite coffee shop) in a built up area. It is a 4 lane road (2 lanes in each direction). Knowing that folks are constantly pulling out of all of the shops in the area, and some of the drive ways for the shops have limited visibility, I had moved into the left lane, and was in the left-hand side of that lane.

I saw a car that was heading in the other direction wanting to make a left turn, and as I usually do, assumed that they were going to cut me off to make the turn, so I slowed up. Once, I had passed the point of no return, this car then decided to make the turn. I pulled my breaks, ended up locking the rear tire up, while this car ever so slowly proceeded to try and kill me by blocking the entirety of my lane.

I eased the front break to allow the bike to straighten up, then I let go of the locked up back break (actually a bad idea under most circumstances), so I could let off the breaks to swerve into the mostly empty oncoming lane to get around them, then quickly back into my own lane. The entire ordeal took about 3 seconds. At that moment I was terrified, and angry at the same time. My hands and feet were shaking, and an absolute rage was building.

I flipped a u-turn in the next driveway, and went right back the way I had come. I was going to let loose on this person. I pulled into the same driveway that they had, and identified the car that had done it. I parked in the nearest available space, and took off my helmet, gloves, etc... and was getting off the bike to head over there to lay into them.

I don't know what it was, but I just stopped and stood there next to my bike. I was ok, with the exception of the violent shaking in my hands and legs. The thought that "I am ok" was going through my head over and over, and this calmed my rage. I decided not to push the issue, and that I should just take a moment, calm down and head on my way. So I sat back down on the bike.

My parking spot allowed me a view of the car that had cut me off. The driver was still inside the car. It was a lady who was taking pictures of me with her phone. I then had a thought that she must feel terrified that I was going to do something. I instantly felt like shit for making her feel that way. After a few moments, I put my gear back on and left, with her still sitting in her car.

I am not a confrontational person, and am not sure what it was in those few short seconds that would compel me to seek out a confrontation. Sure it was a near-death experience, but I've had plenty of those on the bike in the past and never sought out to confront someone. I may give someone the finger, or put my hand up in the "WTF was that?" gesture, but never have I done anything like that.

I guess my question is: How do you deal with anger or rage in the moment to cool yourself down?