“People generally handle emotion in one of two ways:
– They indulge their emotions and ride an uncomfortable roller coaster.
– They run away from them and become distracted and hardened.
There is a third alternative: realize that emotions are only thoughts.”
– George Pransky
From the book, “The Relationship Handbook”
Our emotions reflect the quality of our thoughts, not the quality of our experience or the quality of the world. We tend to think that we’re mad, stressed, scared, upset, insecure, sad or anxious because of a situation. Or because of someone’s behavior, or because of our own behavior.
We can dramatically increase the quality of our lives
when we allow emotions some time and space rather than
immediately reacting from those emotions.
When we realize our emotions are caused by our thoughts, we don’t need to take them so seriously. We can simply give them some space and gracefully allow them to pass. And, in the meantime, refrain from making too many decisions or engaging in too many conversations. That way, we have far fewer messes to clean up!
