If we “control” our emotions, if we go with them, we are damned either way!
Given the choice, we should learn to control our emotions for peace of mind. As powerful emotions can feel like you’re on a runaway horse. Emotional self-regulation helps you take back the reins.
But it is easier said than done! It is difficult to control emotions, as emotions are a natural and wonderful part of life. They colour our world, help guide us through life, and give us insight into our inner thought processes. But what happens when our emotions feel like they’re controlling us instead of the other way around?
If you express your emotions/ feelings too frequently, it leads to further complications and leads to more emotional outbursts which lead to damaged relationships and compromised life decisions.
However, it is difficult, but with some practice, you can achieve this – better control of your emotions. This would make your life more productive and positive.
It is all the more difficult to eliminate emotions from our lives because they only make our life beautiful, liveable, and colourful, so we should not try to do that. But there is a need to manage them and manage them well. This is called emotional self-regulation. If you do that, you are in the driver’s seat which takes you to better mental and physical health.
Emotional regulation requires that you build your emotional intelligence, also called emotional quotient (EQ). This is the ability to identify, understand, and effectively use your emotions to reduce stress, solve problems, and relate to others. There are several ways you can increase your EQ.
So how can you increase your EQ? For this, you need to identify the emotions you’re going through. Here you need to be a little more specific as the world of emotions knows no boundaries. By this, we mean that if you express some broad emotion, you wouldn’t be able to express, what you are wanting to. You need to identify what is it that is troubling you. Why are you feeling like having an emotional outburst?
Understanding exactly what we are feeling helps us communicate better with others and release our difficult emotions more easily.
We, humans, are most scared of uncertainty in our lives. We don’t like to be caught unaware. To the human brain, uncertainty feels like a dangerous situation to be in. This often makes us play out the worst-case scenarios in our minds and go into panic mode.
The ultimate goal in life is to hold on to happiness. It is important to remain happy in any given situation and spread happiness. You should make amends with the scenario if it is unpleasant and leads to emotional upheaval.
What would be the outcome if you suppress or repress your emotions? Sometimes, it is not a happy situation to be in. You are missing out on experiencing and expressing feelings. This can happen consciously (suppression) or unconsciously (repression). Either can contribute to mental and physical health symptoms, including anxiety, which does more damage to your mental and physical health.
Just in case, you are in the grip of anxiety, you need to address that by eating right, sleeping well, exercising regularly, and being surrounded by positive attributes.
“Emotions make our lives exciting, unique, and vibrant, Strong feelings can signify that we embrace life fully, that we’re not repressing our natural reactions.” – Botnick.
While you are practising managing your emotions, you should not sweep them under the carpet. Healthy emotional expression is striking the right balance between overwhelming emotions and no emotions at all.
This will lead to a more fulfilling and happier life! HappyHo
