Overcoming your emotions during challenging times can be tricky. Your intense feelings overwhelm you. The spotlight is on everything wrong in your life as it spirals out of control. Below are three steps and bits of advice to ease yourself out of your emotional turmoil.
1. Acknowledge the problem and your emotions.
You may want to suppress your feelings and avoid the source of your pain so you don’t hurt anymore. But doing so keeps you stuck in the emotional state you’re trying to escape. It’s important to face your situation and accept your feelings so the healing process begins.
Denying your circumstances and emotions delays your progress; as long as you run away from them, they’ll chase you. You can release your emotions only when you dare to face painful events and let yourself feel without judgment.
2. Set parameters around your emotions.
Setting parameters around your emotions is crucial so they don’t take over your life.
When you acknowledge your emotions, let them pass through you instead of feeding them. For example, acknowledge your feeling and the reason behind your sadness. Then let go. Don’t think about other circumstances in the past that also brought this feeling or any other emotions consuming you. The key is always to release your emotions as you become aware of them and not add to the pile.
Also, give yourself time to process your feelings without getting comfortable in the crisis. Don’t let your emotional state become a lifestyle. Remember that there is a time for everything. You must dust yourself off and move on at some point.
3. Identify the true nature of your emotional needs.
Your emotional needs can have a positive or negative impact on your life. They must come from a healthy place. Otherwise, they’ll harm you.
For example, you may be extra sensitive or vulnerable because of an experience and become overprotective of yourself. But this need for protection can be fear-based and prevent you from getting outside your comfort zone, as you’re scared of getting hurt again. Therefore, you associate certain situations with danger instead of opportunities. You get stuck in a pattern of needing to protect yourself while being frustrated that your life doesn’t improve.
You should also know.
Your experiences may have given you many reasons to feel emotional, and there’s nothing shameful about that. We’ve all been on an emotional rollercoaster at one time or another. And while it’s okay to hit rock bottom emotionally, remember that your emotional state triggers negative thoughts, so ignore them as they’re causing more harm than good.
Just because life has been challenging and you’ve felt a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean it’ll always be this way. The same goes for your emotions. Don’t let despair convince you that you have no more opportunities. Nothing in life is permanent.
Remember that you’re not your emotions; your circumstances don’t define you. You are so much more than that!
