On Managing Emotions

Managing emotions doesn’t require controlling them.

Managing emotions just requires becoming aware of them

before becoming consumed by them.

Managing emotions, in other words, requires awareness.

COMMENTARY:

• This is simple, but not easy. And it’s simpler for some people—and some emotions—than for others. (And it is always made more difficult by craving some version of total emotional control.)

• Direct awareness, if nothing else, gives us choice—a moment to intervene in an instinctive reaction (even if our choice is simply not to intervene).