Emotional Discipline 101
Emotional discipline is exercising your ability to control how you feel. And once you acknowledge that you have this ability as well as this right, you can finally learn to manage your life and become the master of your destiny. And when you do allow your emotions to be in the driver’s seat of your life, there can be some negative consequences that you will have to consider.
Understanding Emotional Discipline
Each of us has the power to choose how we feel. And while your feelings may be strong, it is up to you to decide how you will allow them to influence your mood, control your thoughts, and determine your decisions in life. Exercising these controls is known as emotional discipline.
Your emotions are responses to your core values and beliefs, which is why it is essential to pay attention to them. When you are feeling something strongly, it is often because it is not aligned with something you hold dear in your heart. But, allowing these feelings to control and manipulate you is not healthy. It can cause conflict within yourself and with other people, and it can cause you to make decisions that are not really in your best interest.
Discipline is really just training yourself to follow specific rules or codes of behavior. And while most people understand that discipline is useful for teaching children and for helping you create healthy habits, it is not often recognized as something important to your mental and emotional well-being, as well.
Emotional discipline requires that you can first recognize your emotions, that you can then control how you express them, and that, even when you have a strong emotional reaction, you can make decisions based on logic and reason, which means you may not always choose to do what your emotions are telling you to do.
The Benefits of Emotional Discipline
When it comes to not just knowing and understanding but also controlling your emotions, it is important to consider why this is a good idea. After all, our feelings are important and give us great insight into what is important to us, right? So, why shouldn’t we be listening to these at all times, doing what they say we should? There are several reasons.
First, your emotions are yours, and they do not apply to everyone. When you only use your emotions to make choices or decisions, you neglect to consider the needs of others. Emotional discipline allows you to make decisions that are less selfish and more inclusive of other people.
Exercising emotional discipline also means that you can stand in the face of trouble and not back down. Our first instincts, like fear, are not always the best ones in the long term. Knowing when to ignore those emotions and stand your ground shows your courage to face adversity.
Using emotional discipline can bring you balance and control to your life. You are using the information of your emotions as well as all the other factors of the situation to make the best decision possible, which means you will not worry about your choices as much. Having control over your emotions gives you more confidence and self-esteem as you use your self-discipline to become less reliant on your feelings to guide you.
Final Thoughts
Learning to be more emotionally disciplined requires that you understand your emotions, including their causes, you see how your emotions affect you mentally and emotionally, and that you consider other information and factors before making decisions, either for yourself or for others. When you stop letting your emotions control you, you regain control of your life and can accomplish your goals.