Thank you so much for your interest in The Insight, by Sheba. I hope you enjoyed this week’s blogs about “Managing Emotions”

Next week’s topic will be “Emotional Capital”

Friday Review: Happy Reading!

1. With Defense Mechanisms.

• It’s perfectly fine and normal to feel down sometimes. It’s what we do with and about our emotions that makes the difference. Redirect any negative emotions toward something positive and productive by using some of the techniques listed above. These practices will provide you comfort and help you find meaning through painful, stressful experiences.

2. By Changing Your Surroundings.

• When it comes to managing your emotions and changing old habits, it’s less a matter of strength and resistance and more a matter of knowing yourself. Analyze your past surroundings, the people that were in your life, and the influences within your environment. If you find yourself feeling the same emotions and performing the same behaviors, change your environment. Consider how the people within that environment may have influenced your emotions and reactions in the past.  Avoid putting yourself in situations that cultivate negative emotions and the habits you’re trying to break. You might recognize a change for the better in your emotions and behavior.

3. Wear a Thick Skin.

• Our attitudes are contagious. When interacting with someone who’s in a bad mood, be strong in character, compassionate and engage in active listening. Know that you have the power to manage your own emotions and maintain a positive attitude. In managing your own emotions, and reaching out to others with simple acts of kindness, you are able to maintain positivity and help others better manage their emotions.

4. And Stress

• Stress caused by experiences and the emotions that arise within those unexpected moments, are minor compared to what we are capable of doing, especially if we are prepared to handle it. Prepare yourself by leading a healthy life. Daily exercise, a healthy diet, and a full night’s rest will make you strong enough to withstand stress and maintain a positive attitude and emotions. Give yourself the advantage and the opportunity to enjoy life and make the most of every moment!

The Insight: Emotions take on several different roles and have a number of different influences in our lives. They are powerful feelings that can easily overpower us in certain situations. Remember that many emotions are temporary, all emotions are changeable, and your emotions are not the only ones that matter. Never lose your cool. Take a step back and create a plan to best manage your emotions in every situation.

Have a wonderful weekend! 

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

A Positive Perspective for Life, Love, and Relationships

The Scenario – We incur stress from a number of different events, activities and experiences. In each of these, our emotions act as catalysts to amplify the stress.

The Scenario – Has your mood ever been affected by someone else’s?  Were you having a great day before that person started complaining about his or hers, and left you feeling down but you could not explain why?

How can one person’s mood affect another’s and how do you manage it?

According to a recent study conducted by Allan Filipowicz, Ph.D., Sigal Barsade, Ph.D., and Shimul Melwani, moods are contagious. We have the ability to influence another person’s perception of us and his or her own disposition based on our attitude. The study found that we respond differently according to other peoples’ dispositions:

1.     Steady State

• People who interacted with an individual whose mood showed little alteration (i.e. began angry and remained angry) perceived the emotional individual as one whose mood did not reflect their interaction.

 2.     Emotional Transitions

• People who interacted with an individual who underwent an emotional transition believed that the change in moods in that individual was a result of their interaction.

 3.     Interactions

• The people were less accommodating and less receptive to the individuals with steady state emotions than they were to those who exhibited an emotional transition. The emotional transitions served to diffuse some of the ill temper because those individuals were at one point happy, or eventually became happy.

(Read More)

The Insight – Our attitudes are contagious. When interacting with someone who’s in a bad mood, be strong in character, compassionate and engage in active listening. Know that you have the power to manage your own emotions and maintain a positive attitude. In managing your own emotions, and reaching out to others with simple acts of kindness, you are able to maintain positivity and help others better manage their emotions.

What does your attitude say about you?

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

Creating Positive Perspectives for Life

The Scenario –Do you ever find your emotions influencing  your behaviors…for the worse? This is how old habits form. How do we break them?

Why are habits so difficult to change?

A study conducted by David Kurlander, Ph.D., David T. Neal, Ph.D., Wendy Wood, Ph.D., and Mengju Wufound that habits often persist despite personal changes in attitude and goals. The following are primary factors involved in habitual behavior:

1.       Environment

• We tend to associate certain behaviors with particular environments and settings in which we repeatedly performed those behaviors; eventually, those environments trigger those behaviors.

2.       Automaticity

• We tend to form patterns in our behavior until they become automatic and we no longer think about the process or additional actions produced by that pattern of behavior.

(Read More)

The Insight – When it comes to managing your emotions and changing old habits, it’s less a matter of strength and resistance and more a matter of knowing yourself. Analyze your past surroundings, the people that were in your life, and the influences within your environment. If you find yourself feeling the same emotions and performing the same behaviors, change your environment. Consider how the people within that environment may have influenced your emotions and reactions in the past.  Avoid putting yourself in situations that cultivate negative emotions and the habits you’re trying to break. You might recognize a change for the better in your emotions and behavior.

Are you in the same place trying to change how you feel and how you behave?

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

Creating Positive Perspectives for Life

The Scenario: Somewhere in a photo album tucked away in the back of your closet there’s a picture of you in the prime of your high school or college career. As you peer at the picture and relive your fond memories, you can’t help but wonder, “What was going on with my hair, or that shirt? What was I thinking?” You made the conscious decision to have that sense of style. But as an adult, have you given much thought to which coping mechanisms you choose to help you maintain balance when in stressful situations?

Do you choose to practice healthy coping mechanisms to manage your emotions?

According to Mark Dombeck, Ph. D. and Jolyn Wells-Moran, Ph. D., emotionally mature, healthy, stable adults choose from the following coping mechanisms to help adapt to life and handle pain or stress.

1.       Suppression

• Consciously deciding not to think about stressful or traumatic feelings until a more appropriate time when one is better able to deal with them.

2.       Sublimation

• Converting negative feelings into positive, constructive feelings and actions.

3.       Altruism

• Using personal experience with pain and stress to help others who may be struggling with similar feelings.

4.       Distraction

• Occupying one’s thoughts with something other than the cause of pain and/or stress to redirect thoughts and temporarily reduce the stress.

Other techniques may include

• Keepin a journal
• Exercising
• Meditation
• Talking it out

The Insight: It’s perfectly fine and normal to feel down sometimes. It’s what we do with and about our emotions that makes the difference. Redirect any negative emotions toward something positive and productive by using some of the techniques listed above. These practices will provide you comfort and help you find meaning through painful, stressful experiences.

Which coping mechanism do you choose?

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

Creating Positive Perspectives for Life