Controlling Negative Emotions

In a previous article, we explained the importance of identifying negative emotions that hinder us on the road to success and goal achievement. These negative emotions of fear, jealousy or envy, inferiority, and anger can seriously damage your peace of mind on a daily basis. They can also affect your physical health and ultimately keep you from achieving your goals in each area of your life.

These negative emotions have consume many lives and ruined relationships, physical health, mental and emotional stability, careers, and finances. In order to have the optimal opportunity of eliminating these kinds of emotions, we will take a look at the four most common causes of these types of feelings.

Many people justify their anger or other emotions because they feel they have a right to think this way. They concentrate on a wrong that they experienced (either real or imagined) and proceed to enumerate all of the reasons why they have a right to feel angry or offended.

The problem with this is that this type of anger and justification (even when it is to some extent legitimate) can blind you and keep you from seeing the opportunities for success that are right in front of you.

Brian Tracy says that rationalization is used "to give a socially acceptable explanation for the otherwise socially unacceptable act." In other words, many people do something that they know is wrong, and then they try to rationalize it with all kinds of excuses in order to make themselves feel better. They try to make the mistake sound less severe so that others will think better of them in the process.

Many people have a hypersensitivity when it comes to the opinions of others. For these persons, their entire self worth can be severely affected when they believe that someone else looks down on them. This can give rise to all kinds of negative emotions like anger, embarrassment, and even depression in extreme cases.

This fourth cause really brings together all of the above points. So many people in our society today fail to accept responsibility for their actions. In fact, we have all been guilty of this at one point or another, but we must establish the habit of accepting responsibility. This is so important because it is one of the keys to achieving any kind of goal you set for yourself. Without accepting ultimate responsibility, you cannot make yourself accountable in order to have the discipline to achieve your goals.

Even if you are not responsible for all of your particular circumstances you face at the moment, you have to focus on those things which are under your control. That is all any of us can do in the end, and it is usually enough to succeed.


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Jacob Lumbroso is a world traveler and an enthusiast for foreign languages, history, and foreign cultures. He writes articles on history and languages for http://electronicairpurifier.org/ and recommends Bionaire Air Purifiers for allergy sufferers.