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by Jayaram V
Emotions are the drama of your life. Life
without
emotions would be dull and
boring like an empty canvass. The Star
Trek character Spock may have many good qualities, but I doubt
very much if he would ever make an ideal life partner. Emotions
are at the heart of both good and bad relationships. They bring
people together and also tear them apart.
People express opinions about emotions, but know little about
them and much less how to deal with them, live with them and keep
them under control. When we are under their influence, it is as if
we are different people living in a different world. We have
stories of gods and goddesses and saints and seers becoming
emotional and making mistakes.
Many would not like to admit that they have difficulty in
coping with their emotions. But it is necessary that we understand
our emotions and know how to live with them without destroying our
zest for life and impairing our lives and mental stability. The
following suggestions may be helpful in devising a suitable
strategy to deal with ones emotions.
1. Accept your emotions. Emotions are an integral and
important aspect of your personality. You cannot do without
them. You cannot suppress them totally. They are essential for
your survival mechanism. They serve a definite purpose by giving
you advance warning signals and alerting your to certain
situations in your life.
2.Experience your emotions fully. Many people are not
comfortable with their emotions. So they try to suppress them, or
ignore them or distance themselves from them. But emotions just do
not go away unless you pay them adequate attention and remedy the
underlying cause. Experience your emotions here and now, as they
arise, paying full attention to the bodily parts where you
experience them.
3. Keep yourself in good health. A healthy body is a
great asset in dealing with negative emotions such as depression
and anxiety. Regular exercise,
relaxation and proper diet contribute positively to your emotional
well being.
4. Stay in the present, here and now. As most of us know,
life is what happens to us without our knowledge as we keep worrying
about our past and feeling anxious about our future. Our
preoccupation with past and future keep us mostly in a state of
emotional turmoil. If we remain focused on the present, we get an
opportunity to understand ourselves better and deal with our
emotions as they arise.
6. Develop Trust. Trust in yourself and God are very
important. With trust comes confidence and with confidence you can
overcome many negative emotions such as fear, worry and anxiety. 7.
Seek the help of a expert. An expert in emotional
control may help you release the emotions associated with your
past experiences. If you believe your emotions are interfering
with your life and your goals, seek expert advice. 8. Acquire
knowledge. It would be helpful if you gain some insight into
this subject by reading informative articles and books on mental health.
You can subscribe to some magazines on self help and mental
health. 9. Become a master of your emotions. Play with
your emotions consciously and deliberately. Learn to distinguish
various emotions in order to develop suitable strategies to deal
with them. Become familiar with the feelings and sensations
associated with each emotion as they arise. Try to induce some
emotions artificially in your consciousness to experience them and
understand them. Alter the imagery and memories associated with an
emotional experience to see how it will effect you. Increase the
intensity of an emotion or reduce it or change its composition.
Learn to use specific words, or images to trigger specific
emotions. As you develop some expertise in this field, you may
even learn to replace one emotion with another or the feelings and
thoughts associated with an emotional experience. Tune into a painful emotion that has
been troubling you and relive it consciously just as you are
watching a movie in your mind changing the content and the images
deliberately, if necessary, and accept it as an event of your
past. 11. Examine the beliefs underlying your emotions and
question their validity. Understand how your beliefs and prejudices are
working together to produce various emotions in you.
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