SOOOOO funny when youβre having a strong emotion and your logical brain KNOWS youβre overreacting but you literally canβt do anything about it.
Emotional brain: fire and rage and biting and biting and biting
Logical brain: That was an innocent mistake, and not anyoneβs fault.
Emotional brain: youβre rightβ¦ fire and rage and biting biting biting for one thousand years tho
Dialectical Behavior Therapy has a skill for that (which could sorta just be a general tagline for DBT, but still).
Opposite to Emotion (O2E) says that when you have those emotional urges that you know don't make sense, do the opposite! Want to insult someone? Complement them. Want to hole up alone? Go out.
This is more than just not doing something based only on emotion! It's actually a trick to short circuit the entire process. You intentionally inflict cognitive dissonance on yourself, in order to be able to better choose your emotional response. It's tricky, and tends to be uncomfortable, but you get out of that loop.
I sometimes find that Opposite Action to Emotion can be invalidating of my emotions. That's where Wise Mind can come in handy.
Wise Mind is like the synthesis of the Reasonable Mind thesis and Emotion Mind anthesis. Reasonable Mind is focused on facts and logic. Emotion Mind is focused on emotions. Wise Mind honors both the emotions and the reason. Your emotions serve a purpose. They're there to protect you and keep you alive. Once you accept and respect your emotions, it becomes easier to practice Opposite Action when the emotions are unjustified
