Emotional Control

Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions. – Will Smith

Being emotional is being human. We never should be sorry for having humanity. It provides us strength, encouragement, help, and compassion. It is said, the greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. While this may not mean death, it can mean our time and energy. Each of us is presented time, to do as we will with it. Giving that time and energy is in essence giving our lives over to another.

Will Smith saying, stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions cautions the individual to not be manipulated.

Our emotions are our personal reactions to the external and internal triggers we experience. The stoic Epictetus commented on emotions as being not only simple affective, but involve judgments or assumptions. The stoics believed our reaction is the one thing we can control. However, today both entertainment, advertising, and other industries fight to acquire our emotion and attach that emotion to a product, idea, or imagination.

Outside industries selling something, people will often control their emotions through feelings of guilt, inadequacy, anger, and other reactions. These individuals desire control of the external surroundings, including you. These industries and individuals set up triggers to bring the emotion and attempt to attach it. Much like Pavlov’s dog, the external trigger brings an internal reaction.

When your emotions arise, take a moment to consider the emotional reaction. You need to identify the trigger and take control. This is not turning your emotions off, rather understanding them and removing those manipulating you.

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You can hear more of these insights on my podcast: https://anchor.fm/infobymattcole