Realize That You Are Not Your Emotions for More Mindfulness
How many times have you ever said, “I’m angry”? Or “I’m sad”? Or any number of feelings that you “are”? To better manage your emotions, try to admit that you are the wrong emotions. You just feel them.
As the blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree explains, our brains are not always the instrument of subordinate thinking that we would like to believe. Your brain can begin to sense things regardless of whether you want to, and you can’t always control them. The first step to managing these unexpected and sometimes uncontrollable feelings is to become aware of what they are. And this is not your whole personality or even your emotional state:
When I spoke to him, neuroscientist Alex Korb made an interesting distinction. If you broke your arm, you would not tell people, “I am broken.” But when we feel angry, we quickly say, “I am angry.”
And this causes a lot of inconvenience. Your hand picks up objects. Just like your brain produces thoughts. Here’s what he does. And as you well know, some of these thoughts are ridiculous. This does not mean that you are.
While this distinction may seem arbitrary, it is the key to dealing with your emotions. If you believe that you are your feelings, well, there is nothing you can do about it. If you treat anger, sadness, or frustration the same way you treat a headache or pain, you know you can take steps to relieve the stress caused by that emotion.