How to Manage Your Emotions

Emotions are feelings. All humans have them but don’t necessarily understand them right off the bat.

Emotions can be coped with in various ways, good or bad. Some may find themselves handling their emotions through distractions such as video games, shopping, eating – the list goes on! In some cases, handling your emotions with these go-to methods are effective however, it is not always the ideal way to manage them as it only offers temporary relief.

Although we may not know what to do with our emotions all the time, they are a valuable asset and an important part to who we are as human beings. With practice and patience, better emotional management can be developed when learning to process and to cope effectively. When this is achieved, we are able to grow and further understand ourselves, allowing us to establish relationships through connecting with others, along with the ability to attain goals and new experiences.

Step 1: Processing Your Emotions

Emotions felt from happiness tend to focus more on what you’ve gained, physically making you feel relaxed, light, and extra smiley.

Emotions felt from sadness tend to feed off of negative thoughts and past experiences, physically increasing fatigue and a feeling of heaviness.

With anger, your focus shifts to defense mode and an increased heart rate and stiffness is typically felt when anger takes over.

Lastly, anxiety:  this is where the “What if” questions kick in. Anxiety causes a sense of indecisiveness, making you think about the future and all that can go wrong as a result. The physical effects are similar to anger – increased heart rate, stiffness, and tight muscles.

Step 2: Coping with Your Emotions

Because each individual is different, it is hard to promise that these strategies will work for everyone. Regardless, they are worth a shot and can be beneficial in further understanding yourself on a more emotional level.

Don’t let your emotions intimidate you. Always know that you have the power to take control of how you handle your feelings in situations. With the help of the proposed strategy above, you will have a clearer idea of the true benefits of having emotions. Emotions are informative, functional, and not as scary as they seem!