Today we’re talking about why you should never let your emotions dictate your actions and how to stay calm in every situation. Read until the end for the best tips to never let emotions get in the way.

Our abilities to experience, understand, and express emotions are vital to our everyday lives. While positive emotions can improve your life and boost your mood, adverse reactions can affect one’s emotional health and social relationships. Emotions are not an easy experience.

It doesn’t matter what others do and what happens around us – what matters is how we attribute meaning to the words or behaviors of others. Therefore, we decide how much weight we’re giving them. You can see the bad things in life as either immense tragedies or lessons and new experiences.

It’s all about responding, not reacting. Taking power from emotions back into our hands. Our emotional reactions are on us and on us only. So, remember who’s in charge and take back control.

How do emotions affect decision-making in people?

Before getting into tips on how to not let emotions control you and get in the way, let’s dive deeper into how emotions work and why they make us do what we do.

Let’s start with a simple definition of what are emotions. “Emotions are often confused with feelings and moods, but the three terms are not interchangeable,” according to UWA. “Emotions are how individuals deal with matters or situations they find personally significant. Emotional experiences have three components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response.”

We can conclude that feelings come from emotional experiences, which can be getting a promotion or even losing your job.

Different kinds of emotions

You need to know the difference between emotions to see them coming and understand what they are. So, let’s take a look at the basic six emotions we feel:

• Sadness
• Happiness
• Fear
• Anger
• Surprise
• Disgust

To learn more about human emotions and enhance your emotional literacy, you can check out the wheel of emotions, made in 1980 by psychologist Robert Plutchik. He grouped eight basic emotions into pairs of opposites, like joy and sadness or anger and fear.

When mixed together, certain emotions can create new complex emotions, and his goal was to understand them better. The Plutchik model can be compared to a color wheel that designers use to find the perfect color combination.

Understand your emotions

If you look and observe the people around you, you will see that they’re a cast of characters. Although we might share some traits, most of us are inherently different. How our brains are wired, how we look at stuff, and what we care for.

For example, if I accidentally scratch my watch, there’s a good chance I will go mental. On the other side, my girlfriend scratches her watch a minimum of three times per day and couldn’t care less.

That makes me understand that I could also care less if my watch scratched. It’s just a watch in the end. It helped me in two ways. First, I figured out that wearing my watch on the beach the whole day will inevitably get it scratched. So, I have two choices: take it with me and scratch the watch or leave it at home and wear something sportier.

The second one is to realize it’s just a watch, and if you use it, scratches will happen. I have changed my outlook, and now I think scratches give the watch character. Every scratch is a battle scar to complement life memories. It’s not that I don’t care anymore; it’s just that I have accepted the reality of it and adapted it to something I can stomach.

Looking at the picture, it’s evident that I end up wearing my watches. It’s not worth stressing it over and losing my mind. The same goes for anything else. Scrape everything you think and know, and next time before you explode, ask yourself – is it worth getting gray hairs over this?

We will not let emotions get in the way of leading a better life. Instead, we will become better leaders and be in touch with our emotions.

Take control of your emotions

Your goal is to take control and never let your emotions dictate your actions. To do that, you must see them coming from a mile away and prepare. As soon as you start feeling tingles, nervousness coming around, or your body going into ‘fight-or-flight’ mode, it’s time to get ready.

Getting to know your body and what triggers you is the only way to successfully cut these issues at their root. Find the triggers, and you will find the solution. For example, when I start getting nervous, I play a couple of Chess or Sudoku games, which helps take my mind off for a second. Journaling is another excellent way to get a better grip on your emotions. When you express your feelings in a journal, you will learn more about yourself and eliminate negative emotions. If you end up writing a book, check out our guide on the best book writing tools.

You don’t want these emotions to disappear and probably can’t achieve that. However, you can prepare your mind and body and not let it mess with you, but gain something from it. You know how people say that ‘reality hit them in the face,’ right? Those emotions can feel like a tornado or a pleasant breeze, and it’s on you how it will play out.

One of the great examples of how to take control and not let emotions dictate your actions is Jeff Bezos’s management style. His exceptional decision-making skills come from his long experience in being on top of the world. You can imagine the decisions he had to make and the stress he went through in his career. We can all learn something from a man in such a position.

Bezos is about calculated risk and making quick, reversible decisions and actions. One story I’ve heard a story through the grapevine shares the advice from Amazon’s founder himself. It goes something like this:

If you ever have problems with a difficult decision, think about the future; ‘Will that decision haunt me when I’m 70 and sitting on my porch in my rocking chair?’ If the answer is no, make the decision and move on.

The goal is to make high-quality, high-speed decisions, whether in the business or personal world. Jeff Bezos doesn’t let emotions cloud his judgment and get in the way of his success. Before deciding, ensure the decisions are reversible and that you don’t say or do something you won’t be able to take back.

Don’t let emotions get the best of you

While all of us will, from time to time, feel negative energy building up and stress catching up, our close ones and our mental health cannot be the ones to pay the price. Relationships take years, or even decades, to build and can collapse in a second. It’s not worth risking something good and rare for something you can control and change.

So, what does it mean when you let your emotions control you?

Many of us, myself first, have lashed out at family or friends just because we had a bad day. But, you should not forget that words can be mightier than a sword, and what you say will stick in peoples’ minds. You don’t want people to remember you by the rude things you said when you had an unnecessary fight about a parking spot or who took the trash out. Also, that fight could have been avoided.

What I’m trying to say is mind your words. Don’t rush and say something you’ll be sorry for later. Instead, steal a moment, take a deep breath, and figure out how to respond. Learn to communicate the issues you’re having, and half of your problems will stop being problems.

Ensure not to let emotions get the best of you. Remember that while you will feel every emotion, good and bad, reacting to them is optional. If you think you need it, many natural food supplements are available to make you calmer and mentally stronger.

For even more, check out our article on how long nootropic supplements take to work or the best nootropics on the market.

To conclude, you don’t have to have an angry outburst or raise your tone whenever you don’t like the news – it’s a choice.

The bottom line

So, don’t let emotions cloud your judgment and get the best of you. Don’t let emotions get in the way of your personal relationships, social life, and career. Never let your emotions dictate your actions; you will lead a happier and more successful life.

Get to know yourself, learn your triggers and proper, ethical responses, and stay calm in every situation – because you can. However, if your emotions continue to overwhelm you, it would be best to seek professional support.

Quotes source: GoodReads

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