A few tips to control your emotions(7 effective ways to do it)
We will simplify things by saying that emotion is a psychological and behavioral reaction linked to at least one factor external or internal to the person. We can either suffer our emotions or control them so as not to damage our self-confidence.
Here are some tips that will help you for sure.
1. Learn to identify and recognize your emotions
The first step to controlling your emotions is to learn to identify and recognize them. Several researches conducted by psychologists have identified the following main emotions in human beings: joy, fear, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, guilt.
If for example, your supervisor announces his or her desire to transfer you to another department, this announcement can cause a sudden pinch in the stomach and a feeling of a headache. These reactions would be signs of fear, especially of the unknown.
The idea here is to identify and be aware of the signals that your body and mind send back to you when faced with different situations. From this point on, you will be able to better control and channel your emotions.
2. Anticipating emotions to better manage them
As soon as you can identify each of your emotions, anticipating them will allow you to be better prepared. For example, if you are watching a meeting between your favorite sports club and a formidable challenger, consider in advance that the team you support may win or lose.
If defeat often makes you feel like your throat is dry, you know you need to have a bottle of water close by. The key here is to identify your emotions and prepare in advance to better control and channel them.
3. Adopting a Zen attitude
To have a Zen attitude is to have a neutral and balanced mental posture no matter what is happening. Imagine this… a person says disrespectful words to you. Chances are that this person is expecting a counterattack from you.
But you remain calm, showing no anger, frustration or any other such emotion. In most cases, the person will panic because nothing is happening. This person will either continue or stop.
This is exactly what some professionals and people who are successful in the art of resolving misunderstandings with others do. Zen attitude is therefore highly recommended for those who want to control their emotions and get the best out of them in all circumstances.
Whether you have to manage stress at work, in your social relationships, or during leisure activities such as an online poker game, the key is self-control, and in poker, as in life, you need to build up a steely mind to achieve peace of mind and better manage everyday emotions.
4. Talking to someone to manage your emotions
When you are faced with a situation that bothers you, such as fear because your performance in your business or your relationships in your social life are deteriorating, talk about it. During one or more exchanges you will certainly be able to find reasons to put things into perspective and avoid the depression that these situations can cause.
Having an understanding ear is essential to understand the legitimacy of our emotions and to have a point of view that is more external to the stressful situations of everyday life.
It may also be wise to get in touch with specialists such as psychiatrists, acupuncturists, sophrologists, and even, why not, healers, who each with their own methods propose new ways to manage stress and to surpass oneself.
5. Talking to oneself (also called autosuggestion)
Autosuggestion is a method that became popular thanks to the psychologist Emile Coué (1857-1926). To easily understand how to manage one’s emotions using autosuggestion, one must use or create words that one repeats to oneself.
For example, every time you are sad because you have a misunderstanding with someone you like, if you repeatedly say to yourself, “after the rain comes the good weather,” there is a good chance that your sadness will turn into hope.
6. Use your past experiences to free yourself
When you have experienced a strong, even violent emotion, rather than trying to forget the event in question, look at what really happened. How did you get into this anger so easily, how did the jealousy take you by the arm, how did the anguish or anxiety overwhelm you? Again, use visualization and especially mental imagery. If you have sufficiently developed your inner concentration, it will be easier for you to look at this “scene” with hindsight and detachment and to better understand what happened to you and thus to free yourself from it.
7. Freeing yourself from emotions by going to the root of the problem
It is not emotion that is an obstacle but our inability to control it. An emotion in itself is neither good nor bad, it is what it “carries” with it that creates suffering. It does not wake up, indeed, by chance.
As we discussed above, emotion finds its source in our more or less conscious perception of reality. If we really want to pacify our emotions, it is at the root of the difficulty that we must go.
To do this, we can at the very moment when the emotion rises perceive the mental scenario to which it is attached. But to do this, we need prior training that will allow us to “stay there” when the emotion manifests itself in consciousness.
Meditation, inner concentration, vigilance will be the means by which we will be firmly rooted at the moment. This approach will already allow us to look at circumstances from other angles by bringing us a view detached from any mental projection.
It is important to keep in mind that managing emotions is a task of every moment. The informed practitioner knows that a lack of vigilance can cause him to lose the benefits of months of effort. Our tendencies, even if we have managed to control them, are like the fumaroles of an old fire ready to ignite again.
But what joy and happiness when we finally manage to “ride” our emotions because they can transport us to the highest heights of our personal achievement.