Do your emotions control you?

I like to write about things which have relevance to me, as well as my practice. Let me just start out with saying, I haven’t always understood this thing called “Emotional Control”. It was really foreign to be , I was the textbook definition of an emotional thinker… and reactor. I would react on any emotion, whether it be anxiety, sadness, anger, you name it. I had a great, out-of-proportion reaction lined up for any situation. Can you relate? Let’s also clarify something. Emotional control is not pushing emotions down and not feeling them. This is emotional repression, and that actually lines us up to be more emotional in the long run. Funny how that works.

Emotional control occurs when we become triggered, and instead of reacting on our emotional ques, we stop, think, process, and ask ourselves, is this emotion really appropriate for this situation? Often when we react, we let go of the power we have over ourselves. We do hold all power over our thoughts and emotions, the two-work hand in hand, and in order to come to a place where we can think logically, we need to master our emotions, as well as our thoughts.

So how do you navigate the fine line between emotional control and emotional repression?

Through CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and working alongside a therapist at Rebound, we can help you target those nasty negative thoughts. Together we challenge those thoughts, give the thoughts a name, a face, and we slowly work on quieting those negative thoughts, and through that, we become more logical. We work on developing a balanced alliance between your emotional brain and your logical brain. When those negative thoughts are quiet, we can allow space for logical thinking, which makes us much less reactive. When we allow for a space for clarify, we offer ourselves the opportunity to respond, rather than react. Want to work towards obtaining control of your emotional reactivity? Contact us today for a free consultation, and together, we can respond to whatever journey you may be on!