Emotions: do they run your life?

What are emotions? What is their purpose? Many people would like to get rid of them because all they do is to cause them trouble. If you are in that category you need to keep reading. Emotions are a full-system response compromising a variety of factors and experiences, and they include bodily sensations, and your thoughts. In order to control your emotions you will need to get in touch with your thoughts and body signals simultaneously. The word emotion comes from the Latin exmovere, and means to move out, agitate, or excite. When emotions get stirred up, they bring about movement or action. And that is why they are part of us.

Have you ever noticed that when you are emotional you have certain thoughts associated with that emotion? For example, if you are angry, you might think that you hate someone. You might have thoughts such as “this is not fair,” or “I am in danger.” And there is also a physiological component to emotions such as tears, blood rush, or sweat and shaking.

Emotions have a reason to be. They prompt us for action, they motivate us, help us communicate with others, and give us important information about what’s going on in a given situation. But like anything else in life if misused or out of balance it can cause trouble. In that is the case, emotions sometimes can lead us to ineffective behaviors. If your emotions make you do things that you regret later and they are causing you trouble in different areas of your life, you need to learn to control them.

Try to follow the next steps and as always practice, practice and practice.

Learn about your emotions. What are the feelings that you experience the most and in what situations. Knowing your triggers is the first step to start doing something about it.

Keep in mind that emotions don’t last forever. The intensity can vary from person to person, and situation to situation. Tell yourself “This too shall pass.” It is important to remember this when you are in the middle of an emotional turmoil.

Watch the Emotion instead of trying to get rid of it. As soon as you watch the emotion, you separate yourself from it, therefore it can’t take over you and quickly disappears.

Accept that life is made of positive and negative emotions that won’t last forever. I you are a person who wishes you could feel good all the time, you are not alone. But that isn’t realistic or possible. Accept those negative times along with the good and positive, because you can’t have one without the other. Just as there is night and day, there is sadness and happiness.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid of your emotions. They are part of you and your identity and they help you be alive. Embrace them and learn to love yourself with everything that you are and feel. Don’t judge yourself about what you feel or act on your feelings; just learn to differentiate between feeling and acting on it and your life will be better.

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