Do you have difficulty in expressing your emotion or do your emotions take over when making decisions? Emotions come and go.
If you can deal with them in a healthy and constructive way, you can unlock your potential for higher performance and achievement. Then, your emotions won’t always control your decisions or behaviour. Here are some tips on how to balance emotional behaviour.
What Are Emotions?
On a simple level, your emotions link to bodily reactions through neurotransmitters and hormones sent by your brain. The reaction of your body takes about 6 seconds.
So even without knowing or being able to stop it, your response is driven by your emotion.
But why do we have emotions in the first place? Because they are useful for producing a specific response to a stimulus.
For example, being scared is an emotion. You might have a very good reason to be scared because of the situation you are in. So perhaps your specific response is to run away.
However, sometimes emotions can be illogical and unreasonable.
For example, being scared of your boss is a negative thought which then impacts on your behaviour and how you deal with that person at work. Clearly, you need to look at the reasons why you have this emotion.
Or maybe your emotion has turned into a phobia which affects your normal behaviour.
You may not choose the response your body makes. That’s why it’s important to balance your emotional behaviour when it comes to sustainable performance.
Emotional Patterns
You can visualise emotions as an iceberg. Only a small part of an iceberg is above the surface of the water.
Your emotions, beliefs, thoughts and traumas are the hidden part of the iceberg underneath the water. That’s the part that drives your visible habits and behaviours that you see above the water.
A positive emotional pattern leads to a productive and helpful reaction. Whereas a negative emotional pattern can lead to a harmful or unproductive reaction.
Of course, it’s easy to get confused between feelings and emotions. For example, happiness is often named as an emotion, but it’s more of a feeling.
Feelings are the conscious experience of the emotional reaction whereas emotions are the automatic response.
For example, if you experience happiness, then your emotional pattern will produce a helpful reaction. But if you’re overwhelmed with happiness, then it might produce an unproductive reaction because it’s too much to handle.
Are There Good Or Bad Emotions?
Emotions are neutral. They are not inherently good or bad. Even though you would much prefer to feel joy than sadness, it doesn’t mean that sadness is a bad emotion.
For example, as soon as you care about something or someone, you open yourself up to both joy and sadness because this person or thing might stay or go.
Why You Need Emotions
Emotional behaviour is part of being human. Emotions are hard wired into behaviour for many useful reasons.
For example, they motivate you to take action. Perhaps you feel anxious about taking an exam or speaking in public.
The anxiety will motivate you to study more or practice more. Or they can help to save you from danger. What if you are in fear of your life or scared about the situation you are in? Being scared can motivate you to move away from the danger.
Moreover, your emotions can also have a huge influence on the decisions you make. Are you excited and happy about a new relationship?
This can motivate you to make decisions to invest more time with this person.
How To Deal With Emotions
You can’t simply switch your emotions on and off, but you can deal with them in a healthier way that improves your emotional intelligence and performance.
For example, the more you hide emotions, the stronger they get. If you can’t get heard, you might shout louder.
Likewise, your emotions and feelings won’t stop until you address them. If you experience a painful emotion over and over again like sadness, anxiety or anger, it could be because you haven’t let it go.
Did you know that on average, about 80% of your thoughts are negative and about 95% of negative thoughts are useless? With this in mind, it’s worth knowing that 95% of the things you fear will happen, don’t happen.
When it comes to your working environment, the things you fear the most are very unlikely to happen. However, there can be underlying reasons why you feel this way. By addressing your emotions, you can start to deal with them.
Remember, your fears can impact your mood and behaviour. So if you want to improve your productivity and performance, you need to understand your emotional patterns.
How To Develop Positive Emotional Behaviour
There are many ways to develop positive emotional behaviour. One method is to practice gratitude. It’s easy to do. Just spend a few minutes when you can, to be grateful for what you have. Practicing gratitude can boost your mental health, improve your relationships and increase optimism.
Another method is to make physical activity part of your regular routine. Physical activity has a hugely positive affect on your wellbeing and mood. Because the release of endorphins can help to combat depression, anxiety and stress. It also helps you to sleep better.
Or you could try meditation. Perhaps just 5 – 10 minutes a day. Meditation helps to control anxiety and promotes self awareness.
It can also lengthen your attention span and help you to notice other things happening around you. Practicing these skills will improve your sustainable performance at work.
Conclusion: How To Balance Emotional Behaviour
To conclude, emotions are essential because they trigger thoughts, feelings, behaviour and body signals. If you’re not aware of your emotions, you are more likely to react without thinking about the consequences.
This can have an enormous impact in a working environment and when making decisions.
By addressing your emotions, you can understand why you are making those decisions and taking those actions.
Furthermore, if you ignore your emotions, they just get stronger until they become difficult to handle or deal with.
If you need support in balancing your emotional behaviour patterns, then get in touch with strengthwise.co for more helpful information.
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