Emotions. We all have them. But, I’ve noticed throughout my life that some of us are better at understanding and controlling them than others. Just take a look around next time you’re out driving around. You have person A–the super angry, incredibly aggressive person that drives their car like they’re trying to tame a wild animal and whip the traffic around them into submission–screaming out unheard orders of “get outta my way!”, gesturing and giving “the look”. (There MIGHT be someone in my home that tends to be this way) And then there’s person B–your easy going, tapping their hands on the steering wheel to the beat of the music, not in any hurry to get any where laid back sort of person. (I REALLY want to understand people that never seem to be in a hurry)
Person A Person B
What’s interesting to me is that in any number of other situations–such as a family member leaving the cap off the toothpaste–Person B might be the one flying off the handle whereas Person A isn’t affected at all.
Why is that? Why do somethings annoy us to the point of breaking and for someone else it’s no biggie? Emotions can, so often, seem beyond our control. We can feel such a number of contrasting things–love/hate, anger/calm, irritation/ acceptance–all within a matter of seconds. A lot of folks attribute the vastness of emotional displays to women–but as a woman who lives with one man and 2 boys–I can attest that the variety of emotional outbursts come equally from both genders.
Emotional Wellness is the ability to understand ourselves and cope with the challenges life can bring.
So I suppose the key to coping with our emotions is to first try to understand ourselves–knowing what might trigger uncontrolled outbursts of feelings. Our emotions aren’t a bad thing–they all have a purpose. We all probably just need to do a better job of not perpetually wearing them on our sleeves. I’ll be honest–I have never been very good at hiding my feelings from anyone. To say I lack self control is a vast understatement.
The thing I’ve noticed about myself over the years is that sometimes venting my emotions is like a release valve for built up pressure. I let stuff build up over time and then out of seemingly nowhere I’ll hit some unsuspecting innocent bystander with a machine gun like spraying of every pent up emotion inside me. After it’s all over–I usually feel relief, but I often leave others feeling shell shocked.
My goals for Emotional Wellness are:
- Learn what triggers emotional outbursts for me and try to avoid those triggers.
- Communicate my feelings more often–when I’m calm– and not let stuff build up.
- In the moment of a potential outburst–take deep breaths, count to 10, or try to remove myself from the situation until I can calm down.
- Take a chill pill Bill. Whether I am flying off the handle over some injustice or over excited about something. I need to be a lot more center of the road with my emotions. Being even keeled has long been a quest of mine.
So, how about you? What are your goals to achieve Emotional Wellness? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments below or on any of the social media sites I post on.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
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