What Are Emotions And How To Control Emotions?

What Are Emotions?

Emotions are biological conditions that are linked with the nervous system. Emotions play a significant role and have substantial clout on human behaviour.

They are autonomous bodily responses to certain external or internal circumstances that occur in our life.

Emotions result in various physical and psychological changes in our bodies.

Emotions are usually interconnected with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, creativity, and motivation.

What Are The Roles Of Emotions?

Emotions play an essential role in our lives and significantly influence our actions and thinking. They help us to think, take steps, and to do things. They help us to converse better and to articulate our thoughts efficiently.

A person needs emotions to showcase their psychological actions.

Emotions help us in various ways:-

Emotions Motivate Us To Do Tasks

Emotions motivate us to do tasks. 

For example, if we are anxious to complete an assignment before the deadline, we tend to put more work and complete it. Hence emotions play a decisive role in motivating us to achieve our goals.

They Help Us Survive

Emotions help us to survive by understanding the threat and danger.

They help us sense the threat as we feel fear and are terrified, then we are most likely to flee from that area.

Emotions Help Us Make Decisions

Emotions royally influence our decision-making. Emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in the way we make our decisions. Hence feelings are important and play an essential role in our decision-making.

Increases Our Sense Of Understanding

Emotions help us to understand other people. It helps us in understanding other people’s needs as well our own needs.

Emotions help us in better communication with others. Emotions allow us to respond and build stronger, more meaningful relationships with our friends, family, and loved ones. 

Emotions are classified into positive and negative emotions. Emotions such as sadness, fear, anger, and jealousy are destructive, and emotions like happiness, excitement, love, etc., are classified as good emotions. And people say that negative emotions should be avoided, but it’s wrong. Having emotions of all these types is normal and completely natural.

Having these emotions and showcasing them rather than drowning them inside you is considered healthy and is vital for excellent mental health.

Sometimes, when emotions go out of control, which may be due to psychological factors and various other factors, they can negatively impact our mental and overall health.

When they become out of control, even emotions such as joy may cause problems that need to be taken care of.

But these can be controlled and taken care of.

Ways To Control Emotions

1. Writing In A Journal 

Writing down our thoughts, what disturbs us, and what excites us helps us know and explore our emotions. Writing down our feelings helps us understand them and allows us to recognise the circumstances and our triggers. Identifying particular triggers makes it easy to come up with ways to tackle them more efficiently.

2. Accepting Your Emotions

Accepting emotions provide us with a comfortable place to understand them. Acceptance and understanding them is the key to handling them in a better way. Once we are comfortable around our emotions, we can feel them without reacting in highly unhealthy ways.

3. Deep Breathing 

Deep breathing exercises play an important role in calming oneself. It provides time and helps in understanding and reacting to the situation. Therefore, practising deep breathing exercises might help us understand our emotions and respond to the problem.

4. Meditation

Meditation helps in increasing the awareness of all our feelings and experiences.

It helps us in understanding our emotions.

Meditation helps us to accept our emotions. It also relaxes and soothes us. It also helps in better sleeping patterns.

5. Introspection

Introspection is the inspection of one’s own conscious notions and feelings. Introspecting and understanding our needs, thinking, and emotions, and regulating and working on them help us know about our feelings.

6. Take Time For Yourself

Taking time for yourself is very important. Distancing yourself from those intense emotions and giving time provides time and a better idea of experiencing them.

Distancing yourself from your emotions for a short period is healthy, and there is no harm in that.

7. Take Up New Hobbies

Add new hobbies to your life. Discover your likes and dislikes and channel your energy towards them. New activities such as dancing, singing, painting or gardening, etc., can help you divert your attention and help you control your emotions. Having a new hobby not only adds new skills to your life but will help you not lose control over your feelings.

8. Boost Your Mood

Boosting your mood by watching a funny movie, talking to a friend, or going on a trip helps boost your thoughts and increases your way of thinking towards your emotions. Spending some time with your loved ones and uplifting the mood benefits us.

9. Talk To A Therapist

If your emotions are still overwhelming and continue to do so, you may require external/medical help.

Long-term mood swings and outbursts are linked with various mental disorders such as bipolar disorders.

Facing trouble in controlling the emotions might relate to trauma, family issues, etc.

Hence seeking medical help might help in controlling the emotions.

Conclusion

Emotions play a crucial part in our everyday lives.

Emotions help us in understanding, motivating, and communicating with others.

They play a mandatory role in our survival.

Having trouble controlling our emotions may have many underlying problems and are linked to various mental disorders.

There are various ways by which we can control our emotions, for example, by practising deep breathing exercises, uplifting our mood by watching a good movie or spending time with our loved ones, introspection, and meditation. Writing a journal and drafting our thoughts and emotions down help us understand the feelings that provide time to react to them. Even if we cannot control our feelings after following such practices, one might require medical help. Therapy will help in mitigating the mental stress and will help in controlling the emotions.