Managing and Controlling Our Emotions
Have you ever found yourself quickly reacting to everything happening around you? Feeling irritated with the slightest inconvenience? Snapping at everyone or easily crying and feeling sad?
Everyone can have a hard time controlling their emotional reactions sometimes — it’s just part of being human. But if it happens often, then you'll want to take a look at these tools that can help you manage your emotions. While emotions can have a helpful role in your daily life, they can take a toll on your emotional health and your relationships when you aren't able to stay in control. Managing emotions is especially important in situations when we are under pressure.
Here are some examples.
Situations Where Managing Our Emotions is Important:
- When we are giving and receiving feedback
- When we are dealing with challenging relationships
- When we are dealing with tight deadlines
- When we are not having enough resources
- When we are going through changes
- When we are working through setbacks and failure
- When we are in a heated discussion
We all go through these different situations in life because it's part of the journey. Being able to manage our emotions and how we respond is essential in this journey. So how can we take control of our emotions before they take control of us? Managing uncomfortable feelings and thoughts by persistently pushing them away is counter-productive.
Here are our top tips for healthy emotional management.
1. Emotional Awareness
Acknowledge when you're not feeling great.
2. Aim to regulate not suppress your emotions
Healthy emotional expression involves finding some balance between overwhelming emotions and no emotions at all.
3. Don’t judge yourself or your emotions
Allow yourself to feel all your emotions and accept that there are no "bad" or "good" emotions.
4. Have a healthy outlet
You can talk to a friend, or a professional, go for a walk, read a book, exercise, or journal. Whatever you need to let your emotions out in a healthy way.
5. Practice breathing exercises
When things start to feel out of control, take a step back. Take a breath. Clear your head before you react.
6. Talk to a therapist
If you've tried all of the above, but are still finding it difficult to manage your emotions, try talking to a licensed therapist.
In conclusion:
The first step is to learn how to identify the emotions you are feeling as well as learn to understand them. If you are able to name the emotion you are feeling, you have a better chance of understanding what you are feeling. Managing your emotions is a learned skill. It may take some time, but with enough practice, effort, and the right help, you'll be able to take back the reigns.
