Feelings Vs Action

Feelings Vs Action

The moment at which an event occurs, we

experience a swarm of emotions and thoughts

dictated by those emotions. However, once the

moment passes, the thoughts change. They

might now be a mixture of emotional ones and

rational ones. More than likely, we would take

action based on the rational thoughts unless

extremely intense emotions are being

experienced.

That being said, we exhibit this tendency to believe that our emotional reaction should be controlled and “acceptable”, completely forgetting that our emotions are out of our hands. That if an emotional response isn’t “correct” there is something wrong with us or that we’re of bad character, which is simply false. Especially in the case of anger like the source article speaks about. Anger specifically is experienced when you know you have been wronged, one way or another. It’s like a warning signal almost, a reaction to some perceived injustice. It, like any other emotion, is just an emotion, neither good nor bad.

Our emotions are there to make sense of the world around us, which can seem counterintuitive with how confusing they can be but they still serve a positive purpose. Emotionally healthy people experience a full spectrum of emotions with suppressing or repressing them. Doing so takes the control from you to your emotions resulting in outbursts.

Recognizing that they are important and accepting them as they are without judging ourselves for having them is key to regulating behavior. Emotions must be considered when making behavioral decisions but should not dictate them. How we choose to react to situations is a more appropriate measure of how we view ourselves morally. And the great thing about that is that you can almost always modulate your behavior to what you want with a little bit of effort.

In knowing so, we can get out of our own heads and guilt and really make a positive change for ourselves.

Read source article here.

#Emotions #Behavior #Psychotherapy #EmotionalIntelligence