Dealing with the emotional beast

The journey of life is most of the time unpredictable and that’s for a fact. Sometimes you hope for one thing, but life gives you something else. Sometimes you get what you want, but it’s not what you expected it to be. And sometimes you’re found in a situation, which is hard to accept. Maybe because it’s not what you wanted in the first place or maybe it’s hurting you. Whatever the case, it’s not a pleasant feeling and that’s where the emotional beast comes in. You see yourself rebelling against circumstances, shouting and fighting, but there’s nothing you can do about it. And eventually, you have no other option but to accept that sometimes in life things are beyond your control. The only choice you have is to find the inner straighten to make the most of the situation. It could be a negative emotion, frustration, or just that annoying feeling of discontent that life failed you one more time. In any case, acceptance is your final resort.

In one of my previous articles I already talked about frustration and the cases where you feel helpless to change circumstances and the negative effect all this has on you. This time, I’m gonna focus more on the emotional part and suggest a way to deal with your emotions. We have all learned from experience that handling our emotions is hard. Effectually, emotions have the overwhelming power to take control over you, your actions, and your words. They have the power to drive you mad, make you beat the gun and think later. But emotions are in essence volatile, so the emotional beast normally comes out of the hole for a short while and then gets back to sleep again. That transient nature of emotions is the key to master acceptance. Because the power of acceptance beats the power of emotions. You should try to avoid people, situations, or circumstances that affect you negatively, but if for whatever reason you can’t, then learn to accept them with gratitude. Now, that certainly requires profound life experience and patience, but it could only do you good. Acceptance means to let go. It means to look at the big picture, no matter how hard and painful it might be, and make peace with it. Acceptance is to make peace with yourself and stop fighting. Life in all its beauty could sometimes be a real challenge, I know, but adopting the attitude of perceiving everything that happens in a more constructive way, would be of use for your growth. Accepting all good and bad in life as a gift would allow you to develop patience and make better decisions, so you won’t be inclined to act hastily, when the situation rather requires patience and tranquility.

But what does that mean in practice? It’s easy to accept something good, but what if you’re facing annoying circumstances, which bring frustration? What if you are forced to do something you don’t want to or work with someone who sets your nerves on edge? What if you have annoying neighbors or relatives or something around just bugs you to the extreme? First of all, don’t try to change anything, for some things don’t depend on you. Trying to change it, if you’re not the real reason for that, will bring more frustration and you’ll feel lost even more. What you need is to become aware of the big picture. You need to make an objective judgment of the situation rather based on facts than on emotions. So take the time to do this and deal with it at source – inside of you. Sit down peacefully on your own. Take a few deep breaths and try to gradually relax your body. Visualize the situation in your head. Notice the negative emotions that immediately brings and observe your reactions. Just observe. Don’t try to change it. Don’t judge your feelings. Don’t judge yourself. Remember, nothing’s good or bad, there’s no right or wrong. It’s just what it is, nothing more and nothing less. Then, go deeper into it and try to reach the genuine source. Why is this so important to you? Why does it affect you so much? Is there something you can do to change the way you feel about it? Can you see yourself acting differently when being provoked? Focus on that. Call in your inner peace and just observe your thoughts as they’re unrolling in your head. Maybe there’s something on subconscious level that makes you so angry. Maybe there’s a memory of your past that this situation triggers and that’s why you find it so hard to deal with your negative emotions. That’s the time to remind yourself how easily emotions come and go and no matter how difficult it might seem to you right now, try to see the good part of all that. Reach out for your inner peace and remind yourself that you can’t change people. You can’t make them act or talk differently, it is who they are. And since you’re not able to avoid the person or the situation bringing the negative response, you are challenged to develop patience and tolerance, which is good. So take this as a valuable experience and feel grateful you’re given the opportunity to refine yourself and move a step forward to the better version of yourself. Take this negative situation and turn it into something good. That’s how you learn acceptance. For it’s all about accepting your life the way it is at the moment and keep in mind that your reality reflects your inner self, your current development. And after all it’s all about choice. This time, for a change, you may choose to remain unaffected. You may choose to raise higher. This time you may choose to accept life as it is and go one step up. This time you may choose not to let the situation get you. So choose it. It’s all up to you.