Emotions can be transformed. Anger, fear, and craving lose their grip when you face them with awareness and steady practice.
Instead of saying “I am angry,” you say “I feel anger”. That’s different. Then you can look at it as separate from you and gain power over it.
You could ask “Why do I feel anger?” “What is it trying to tell me?” “What are my choices and what results would each lead to?”
“What can be good about this?” “What is the lesson?” “How can this make me better?” “If this is out of my control, I can choose to let it go.”
People that let emotions rule their behavior are out of control and undisciplined. We all have emotions. Transforming them into something productive or at least not allowing negative ones to hurt you is important if you are to take control and live your best life.
So true! I love that you first took the time to validate the emotion but at the same time show that it is not us. A subconscious awareness that often time needs more conscious thought to process correctly. There is a theory that emotions last only 90 seconds if we don’t hold on to the trigger. You can’t necessarily control your emotions, but we can control how we react to them and whether they control us.
This “Conquest of the mind” series has been truly amazing stuff and in light of mental health awareness month last month and men’s mental health awareness month this month, it is awesome that you are bringing awareness to this. Emotional intelligence is so important to getting a grasp of. Our minds are a strong muscle that we need to train correctly, no different than any other.
Thank you!
I would think that most people come to terms with unproductive emotions without deliberately thinking about what they are doing. For me the psychobabble is nuts and isn’t going to work for someone who intuitively isn’t able to reprocess bad emotions. Same for mindfulness and CBT! More of a fad approach than a workable one as I’ve heard from quite a few people, and I tend to agree after a study of and immersion in both techniques.
I like this one Larry, never thought of it in the way you explained it. Asking the questions can lead to the answer instead of sitting with the feeling. Hope you’re having fun on vacation, love the pics.