If you are easily overwhelmed, you might want to know how to control your emotions.

Why? A lack of emotional control can cause upsetting situations. It also compromises your health. Managing your feelings has benefits. The good news is that there are science-based ways to control your emotions. You’ll find some of them helpful and stimulating as I did.

The Benefits of Emotional Intelligence

You’ll find it necessary to calm your emotions during high-stress interactions. Being able to do so is a sign of emotional intelligence.

Also, it allows you to communicate effectively. Few people can get their messages through to others in the heat of the moment. Keeping your emotions in check allows you to do so.

Furthermore, being emotionally calm is a form of self-respect. You’ll love yourself more when you don’t express yourself at the wrong times. You’ll feel more confident as well. Controlling your emotions in front of others also shows that you value your relationships with them.

One study found that parents who handled their emotions and those of their children led their kids to have higher IQ levels than their peers. Their young ones’intelligence was regardless of their educational background.

How to keep emotions in check

Most of us already know that expressing feelings well is essential for health and relationships. Done wisely, communicating emotions can boost careers. You can do this with a few science-based life hacks.

1. Meditation

First of all, meditation can help decrease mind chatter and therefore, control your emotions.

There are two types of meditation, namely Focused Attention (FA) and Open Monitoring (OM). FA requires that you focus on your breath to pay attention. With OM, you watch your thoughts without judging them. If they are negative, let them go straight away.

According to a study, both types of meditation help in reducing negative thoughts. Studies show that meditation can decrease mind chatter by deactivating the parts of the brain that are producing random ideas.

2 Mindfulness

Also, practice mindfulness. Contrary to what you may believe, this is separate from meditation.

You might have heard of this word, but it may puzzle you. Simply put, it’s living in the moment. Having mindfulness means being aware of what’s Happening at present.

Many studies show that whether a person had low or high levels of mindfulness decided his or her ability to regulate negative emotions. The study suggests that self-awareness, plus meditation helped to control negativity.



3. Cognitive Behavior Therapy ( CBT)

Research has proven, without a doubt, that CBT helps people with mental health issues. The least of these, which everyone experiences, Is negativity.

Clinical psychologist Deborah Serani affirms that CBT is the standard when it comes to getting rid of negative thoughts. She has written a book, Living with Depression, which explains the process in detail.

It involves identifying unwanted thoughts, before reframing them to become.positive. It looks to shift a person’s behavior to align with these new ideas. The premise behind this therapy is that you will become cynical if you think negatively.

4. Talking or Writing

Studies have also found that talking can remove mind chatter and keep emotions calm. But you should talk to others and not yourself.

Letting thoughts whirl around in your head doesn’t inspire, but talking to another person might. If there isn’t anyone to chat with, writing things down has a similar effect.

Furthermore, the authors suggest that writing enables us to develop a clear narrative over time. A clear sentence is a clear thought.

5. Repetition and Distraction

This next science-based hack may seem silly, but it will help you focus your mind on specific tasks.

Though there isn’t much research on coloring, there are links between it and lowering stress levels. The repetition of adult coloring involves controls rambling thoughts.

If art isn’t for you, try counting or prayer. Again, these repetitive activities focus your mind on tasks.

Repetition might not engage you, but distraction might. Listen to your favorite music if repetition isn’t your cup of tea. But remember that distraction has varying effects. While they are permanent for some, they might wear off for you.

6. Acceptance

Moreover, one of the best ways to deal with negativity and anxiety is acceptance, according to experts. Psychologists recommend accepting the present reality instead of trying to change it. Doing so releases you from worry because it gets you to understand that what’s happening is beyond your control. So, you can see how regulated emotions work.

7. Compassion

Psychologists also recommend that treating yourself with compassion pushes off negativity. Rephrase negative phrases such that they sound less harsh. If an anxious thought like ‘I hate this deadline. I’m never going to finish the work,’ hits you, you can change it to ‘Deadlines are tough, but I can get through them.’ Simple pep talks work wonders.

8. Helping others

One more way to control your emotions is to get out to help others less fortunate than yourself. Most of us are too absorbed in our problems, according to psychologists. Helping others takes the focus off the self and puts it on them. Therefore, it deflects worry.

9. Cognitive Defusion

Finally, many of our negative thoughts are rhetorical and difficult to answer. Reframing and repeating them until they don’t bother us will make them meaningless. Psychologists call this process ‘Cognitive Defusion.’

For example, if you think ‘My parents are irritating.’ Reframe the thought to become ‘I’m having a thought that my parents are annoying.’ That takes the negativity out of the thought. If you keep thinking ‘I’m a failure,’ restructure your belief and think ‘I will succeed at this,’ instead. “Delude’ yourself positively.

Cognitive delusion works on the premise that positive phrases nurture the frontal lobes of the brain. That triggers actions that lead you to your goals.

If you want to know how to take control of reckless emotions, these science-backed methods might help you.

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