Strong emotions are normal, but when they get to certain uncontrollable levels, they could come with serious effects on your health, relationships and your mind.
However, with a proper understanding of the causes, and appropriate emotion management skills, you can be in a position to stop these feelings from stealing your happiness. So, how do you keep calm and manage these strong emotions like anger? Let’s dig in more.
Understanding Emotions
Emotions convey messages to us and others. They either tell you that something is wrong, threatening or exquisite. However, the way we behave when experiencing strong emotions determines whether the message is conveyed appropriately. It is entirely reasonable to feel emotional after every activity that involves you. However, it is dangerous to express these feelings in a way that hurts or irritates yourself or others.
This brings us to emotional management. Emotional management aims at suppressing strong feelins while ensuring that the message behind them is understood and conveyed in the most appropriate manner. When you can manage your emotions, things get better; your needs are more likely to be met, and your relationship with others grows stronger. Although it is a difficult task, the more your practice emotions management, the easier it becomes.
Exploring Deeper
Emotional problems develop from what you learn while young. If you saw your siblings react to strong emotions by fighting, screaming or throwing things at each other, then you might think that this is how to respond to strong emotions.
What are some of the causes of strong emotions?
- Emotional responses like anger, could be masking other feelings like hurt, shame or embarrassment – just to mention a few. Strong emotions could also result from, health issues such as trauma, depression or high-stress levels.
- Viewing different opinions to those of our own can represent a challenge. This is due to believing that your opinion is the correct one.
- Difficulty in expressing your feelings sometimes comes with being too controlling. You may believe that you are never fearful, guilty or ashamed. But everyone has these feelings, so if you think otherwise, you may be compensating with other strong emotions like anger, to cover up for them
Warnings and Triggers
Strong feelings often come with physical signs that indicate you are about to react. Noticing these warnings allows you to tackle your emotions before they occur. Examine how these strong emotions feel. Get to know how your body reacts to high emotions like breathing fast, clenched hands, tense muscles and other reactions. Identifying these reactions will help you prepare to tackle these emotions in advance.
Identify the thoughts that result in strong feelings. Your emotions are not only caused by external factors but also by your negative thoughts. Avoid blaming others for your mistakes. Avoid overthinking when things don’t turn out as you expected. Don’t allow small things to take over your mind. Learn to concentrate on positive thinking.
Identify events and events that cause these feelings. Examine events that are known to cause strong emotional reactions that can end up in fights. Avoid participating in these activities altogether. These activities may include drinking alcohol.
Absorb Your Emotions
Once you identify the warnings, you can go ahead and learn to diffuse your stringer emotional feelings before they get out of control. There are different strategies you can apply:
- Exercising: involving yourself in exercise activities could help a big deal in keeping calm. They act as distractions which assist in driving away these strong emotions. You could choose to play football or just walk around your estate.
- You could decide to cook some food.
- Washing your clothes.
- Singing or reading a book.
Unexpected Strong Emotions
Sometimes, arguments or other hurting situations occur unexpectedly. Taking a walk or going to the gym may be impossible or not practical. The tips below will aid you to calm in such moments:
- Taking deep breaths helps to diffuse rising tension.
- Slowly counting from one to ten. This helps you concentrate on counting rather than the situation.
- Take a minute to think about the cause of your emotions. Ask yourself whether the situation is worth getting angry and emotional. Gauge whether you are overreacting.
Professional Advice
If all these tips fail, then you may need to consult an expert. There are many programs today that help people manage their moods.