How to master and control your emotions is a nice idealistic idea.
The hard truth, is that it is no easier to control your emotions than it is to control your kids behaviour. Suppress it now, express it later.
To give yourself a better advantage, you may want to consider the idea of generating and producing new emotions, instead of attempting to control your emotions.
Most people attempt to control their “negative” emotions. We attempt to control what we don’t like to feel or express. Understandable.
On the flip side, we tend to admire ourselves and love ourselves even more, when we seem to be producing these “positive” emotions.
Neither are better, just some of them more enjoyable to experience.
If you are looking to change your emotional state, you may want to consider the following three ways in which it is best to master your emotional state
1) Move the body- Your spine and lungs are organs that produce neuropeptides that are chemicals which turn into emotional states. The more you move and the more you breathe, the greater capacity you have to express a wider emotional range, and it is kind of like giving yourself a buffet of emotions to choose from.
2) Focus on What’s Working– Getting your mind to focus on what is working right now, or why a particular challenge might actually be benefiting you, all equal to a more present, graceful, and grateful emotional state. You will feel more expansive and be able to stay more true to your natural state of wellness.
3) Share with Others– The idea to share your uplifted, expanded state is that social support is totally okay to hold you accountable to a higher vision and version of yourself. Once you begin to share and express a higher state, it helps to hold you accountable to sort through your “stuff” faster, more effectively, and leaves you less room to stay in self pity or being a martyr.
With these three strategies you are sure to be able to break through to a new, higher, more evolved and expanded you. It takes work, you will close down at times, so remember to have self compassion as you go to lows and reach new highs.
Best foot forward,
Dr. Steve
P.S. Have you considered downloading our Pathway to Resilience Guide? It’s a simple 7 Steps…actually…nothing is really simple when done consistently over time, but it still is a nice framework to know what you can do to be in your flow.
