THE EMOTION CHALLENGE
HOW TO MANAGE EMOTIONS STEPS: Step 1: Accept responsibility for your reactions. Accept yourself as powerful instead of as victim to remove the veil of self-deception. When you seek to identify what is triggering how you feel in the moment, you give yourself the chance to feel differently if you want to. You will also have more clarity on what you need to do or what you need to ask for to change your circumstances. Step 2: Recognize that you are having an emotional reaction as soon as it begins to appear in your body At any moment, your rate of breathing, blood flow, tension in your muscles and constriction in your gut represents a pattern you can identify as a feeling. The sooner you recognize that you are breathing quickly or not at all, that certain muscles in your body tightened, or that you feel pressure in your gut or heart, stop and ask yourself what you are feeling and why. Step 3: Determine what triggered the emotion What do you think you lost or what did you not get that you expected or desired to have? The strengths that have helped in life are also your greatest emotional triggers when you feel someone is not honoring one of them. When your brain perceives that someone has taken or plans to take one of these important things away from you, your emotions are triggered. The quicker you notice an emotion is triggered, the sooner you can discover if the threat is real or not. Step 4: Choose what you want to feel and what you want to do The reaction to your emotional triggers could subside, but they may never go away. The best you can do is to quickly identify when an emotion is triggered and then choose what to say or do next. Step 5: Actively shift your emotional state Relax – breathe and release the tension in your body. Detach – clear your mind of all thoughts. Center – drop your awareness to the center of your body just below your navel. Focus – choose one keyword that represents how you want to feel in this moment. Breathe in the word and allow yourself to feel the shift.
