Module 4: Overcoming Powerful Emotions
Life is difficult. This is the greatest truth.
As a result, difficult emotions like anger, confusion, fear, loneliness, and sadness, just to name a few, can arise. Fear is one of the most powerful emotions. It has a very strong effect on your mind and body. Fear can create strong signals of response when we’re in emergencies – for instance, if we are caught in a fire or are being attacked.
Emotions like these are often the most present and powerful forces in your life. The key to overcoming these difficult emotions is mindfulness!
Understanding the Triggers.
We all get triggered in some way from our external environment, but the question is: what made us pull the trigger? This worksheet will help you identify emotional triggers and gives you tips on how to deal with them.
Dealing with the triggers.
Once we’re aware of who and what is pulling our strings or pushing our buttons, we can ask ourselves if we still want to react in the same old way. This worksheet will help you look at the strategies that are currently in place, so you can explore other ways of responding.
Applying the STOP Practice.
We’ve all heard it before: “Just stop doing what you’re doing”. But we fail to listen, as we react automatically to situations, especially with certain people or circumstances. However, the STOP practice does work well in conjunction with mindfulness practice. Try it for yourself.
Dealing with Anger the NVC way…..
Non Violent Communication (NVC) provides a great way to deal with anger and apply methodology to cool the situation. Each communication has a need hidden behind it, and when we get present to that need we can start to untangle what’s really going on. Through this investigation we can start to see that our needs are not being met, and we get to a chance to fulfill those needs.
