Emotional Spring Cleaning – Detachment
Emotions have a lot to do with our interpretation of an event. Emotional reasoning takes place when we assume something is true because of the way we feel, when in reality, the truth could be very different. While there is nothing wrong with noticing and recognising your emotions, they can also distract us from objective and neutral interpretations of life and can take us off on a repetitive negative thought cycle that can be emotionally destructive. It can be difficult to learn how to control emotions, however, it is a simple life truth, and very empowering to acknowledge that:
“You choose what you think, you choose how you think. You choose what you feel, you choose how you feel”
Please take a moment to consider what you perceive to be a negative situation you are experiencing in your life just now. How does it make you feel? Negative? Sad? Overwhelmed? Powerless?
Question yourself – Is it because you are choosing to feel that way? Very often conditioning, social experience, learned behaviours, beliefs, peer pressure, etc cause us to feel that if something negative occurs in our lives that after the initial reactive state we are likely to continue to feel this way for some time – until “we get over it”. Or perhaps it is an ongoing situation with ups and downs.
It can become a hamster wheel of accepted negative emotional states of being that are not beneficial – emotionally, physically, psychologically, physiologically, mentally, energetically or spiritually.
However, you are not your emotions. It is your thoughts that lead to emotions and here is a useful tactic to help you learn emotional detachment and control your emotions.
Try imagining thoughts as passengers on a bus. You are the driver on the bus and just as you put the key in the ignition, your passengers begin to tell you that you shouldn’t drive the bus as you are a terrible driver, that you may get them all lost or have an accident … oh and by the way, you’re looking really old and fat in that driver’s uniform.
If you let the passenger rile you, they are in control and you aren’t. Learn to see your thoughts as passengers on a bus – tune them out and focus on the job at hand – driving. In most situations emotional detachment involves taking action without allowing all the thoughts in your head to constantly distract and upset you. Just remember, your emotions are passengers on a bus that can’t interfere with your purpose.
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life!
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