How to Take Control
Regulating Your Emotions: The Power of Self-Control
Many medical professionals can find themselves stuck in their work and life.
You might be struggling with passion for your job. Experiencing difficulty in relationships with your spouse or children. Feeling stressed from the weight of your responsibilities. Lacking compassion for your patients. Making poor decisions. Unclear with the direction of your career. Developing harmful habits. Not connecting with friends. Having trouble relating to colleagues or other medical personnel.
The easy solution is to chalk it up to outside situations and circumstances.
My patients are so difficult right now. The world is going crazy. My spouse isn’t listening to me. My boss doesn’t understand where I’m at.
But this can lead to feelings of anger, depression, fear, and uncertainty.
You might find yourself being more callous in your thoughts toward others. Snapping at loved ones. Thinking the worst of your coworkers and team.
And this isn’t you. You don’t want to be like this or feel this way.
So how do you get control of the chaos?
Regulate Your Emotions
To truly take control in your life you must control YOU.
Your EMOTIONS, THOUGHTS, and RESPONSES are the most difficult things to control.
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” – Epictetus
It’s not an easy truth to swallow.
When you feel out of control it’s because you have given outside circumstances control over your emotions when YOU should be in control.
This is when our emotions and thoughts can begin running rampant without any consideration for their consequences.
You must control your emotions before they control you.
Emotional control refers to the ability to manage your own emotions and reactions to external events. It involves recognizing and acknowledging your emotions while, at the same time, not letting them control your behavior or thoughts.
Gaining emotional control is important for maintaining healthy relationships, managing stress, and making better decisions.
Regulating your emotions takes practice, patience, and perseverance. But it’s a skill that can be developed over time.
Here are 4 strategies that can help you take back control:
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Practice Self-Awareness
Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions, and learn to recognize when you’re becoming overwhelmed or reactive. Try acknowledging your thoughts by speaking out loud what you are feeling or how you are acting. It is also beneficial to reflect on your emotions through writing in a journal. This will help you to actually SEE what you’re feeling and can open you up to making changes.
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Develop Coping Strategies
Emotions are hardest to control in the heat of the moment. It can be helpful to develop healthy coping strategies ahead of time so you can use it when you recognize your waning emotional control. This can include deep breathing, mindfulness, physical exercise, prayer, or removing yourself temporarily from a situation.
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Reframe Negative Thoughts
Learn to reframe negative thoughts in a more positive or productive way. Our thoughts can be our greatest asset and also our greatest enemy. When we choose to focus our thoughts and attention on the Restraining Factors instead of Redeeming Facts (see my blog), we choose inaction and limit our own progress. Instead, take action by choosing to focus on the facts that will keep you moving forward.
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Seek Support
Look for support from friends, family, or a life coach. You need someone who will ask you the right questions, have your personal wellbeing in mind, and challenge you to reach your potential. This is also a great way to have accountability and better follow-through toward your goals.
To improve your mind you must increase your intellect (see my last blog) AND improve your self-control through emotional regulation. But to have true strength in life there’s still one final aspect to consider and it requires both intellect and emotional control to access and develop it…
Which you can find in my next blog…