5 Exercises To Control Your Emotions

Knowing how to exercise control over our emotions does not mean ignoring or suppressing them. What we need to do is learn to deal with them in a healthy way to achieve balance.

Managing emotions is an area we are not prepared for. No one taught us how to control emotions, how to deal with them.

However, thanks to the emotional control exercises that we present to you in this article, this will no longer be a problem.

We offer you 5 very simple exercises that you can do for as long as you need. Remember, however, that practice is the key to success. The more you practice them, the better your results will be.

And don’t forget to be persistent!

Exercises to effectively control emotions

We are going to discover 5 simple exercises that we consider to be the most important. While there are many more techniques out there, we believe these 5 techniques can do a lot for you.

1. Practice mindfulness meditation

This method is also known as minfulness, and another set of denominations which all refer to the same thing: to pause, not to act, to breathe and to observe.

• Mindfulness is something you can do every day. For at least 5 minutes, you will sit or lie down (as comfortably as possible) to focus on your breathing.
• It’s not about leaving your mind blank. It’s about feeling, observing emotions, not judging them and feeling what they want to tell you.

If you do this during a discussion and take time to react, you will find that the confrontation will turn into a healthy exchange of views. No recriminations. No screaming.

2. Keep a diary of your feelings

As amazing as it may sound, keeping a journal of your emotions is a very important thing. If you don’t know how, here is an article that explains step by step and clearly how to get started: How to keep an emotional journal?

• Writing is good therapy and it allows you to see emotions in perspective and think about them with paper and pen. Over time, you will be able to see which emotions recur, and you will know how to deal with them.
• Keeping an emotion journal will allow you to observe progress in dealing with emotions.

Additionally, whenever you are faced with an emotion that makes you unhappy, such as sadness, you can turn to this journal for what to do. This will make you feel more secure and in control.

3. Change the direction of your thoughts

The third exercise in emotional control focuses on changing the direction of your thoughts. You have surely noticed that, if you feel angry, your thoughts start to ruminate around that anger, fueling it.

• At these times, it’s important to have a keyword that puts an end to these thoughts. It could be “enough”, “stop”, “it’s over”, or another word that works for you.
• Then you can write the negative thought, for example, anger, and write its positive equivalent next to it. In this case, it would be joy or happiness.

Even if it doesn’t seem to work at first, a slight sense of calm will set in, which will reduce our anxiety. Try !

4. Give yourself time to worry

Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Normally we tend to worry more than we should, but if we take the time to do it it can seem silly. However, this is not the case.

There are people who practice this exercise in the following way. They dedicate half an hour or an hour a day to think about all their worries and give themselves permission to think only about their concerns.

• After that time is up, they finally focus on what is really important and the concerns are put aside. They may wear off or still be present the next day when they choose to take a moment to worry again.

This is a great option if you don’t want to spend the whole day with your head full of worries. In this way, concerns can be managed more effectively.

5. Find a mirror, quickly!

This last exercise to help you control your emotions is both fun and enjoyable. As soon as you are caught up in a negative emotion, it is important to run to a mirror. You might have one with you …

• The important thing is that you look in the mirror and smile. Even if you don’t feel like it, smile. For a few minutes, maybe 2 to 5, continue to look at yourself in the mirror and smile.
• This exercise will help you be more objective with the situation that caused this emotion. It will calm you down too.
• By smiling, you release endorphins. As a result, you will be able to control your emotions and gain a better perspective on the situation.

Emotions should never be repressed

These exercises for controlling emotions are very positive. But you should never use them to evade an emotion, to forget it, ignore it or suppress it.

The exercises we told you about help calm you down so you can deal with the emotions that overwhelm you.

It is not a question of eliminating them, but of creating a situation of calm and balance to face them healthily.

Running away, repressing or ignoring an emotion is not the solution. It will eventually come back.

However, the above control exercises will help you get to know yourself better and which emotions deserve the most attention.

Have you done any of these exercises to control your emotions? How was your experience?