Losing your temper is one of the easiest things that happen to us in life. When things don’t go the way we want, and we feel really under pressure, the first thing that comes to mind is to screw everything up and get angry. Never as in these cases; therefore, self-control is essential for managing emotions. Let’s pay attention to these 10 techniques for managing anger and anxiety in all situations.
- Increase self-control with breathing. Knowing how to breathe correctly, with the right rhythms, is important, and to control anxiety, panic attacks and anger, it is essential to resort to specific breathing. In times of difficulty, take a deep breath through your nose and exhale through your mouth, and continue until your state of mind has normalized.
- The rule of waiting is excellent self-control. When you have the urge to do something that you can’t give up, like compulsively using your cell phone, for example, try to stall for it. Don’t repress the urge, don’t tie your hands, and postpone the temptation for a few minutes. Initially, for 5 minutes, then ten, then fifteen minutes until you almost naturally no longer feel the compulsive need.
- Self-mastery through small achievements. If you are a person who easily falls into temptation, you cannot drastically change your way of living and behaving overnight. Try setting yourself small daily goals, such as banning an action you deem negative for an entire day. Set a sizeable interval, like half an hour or an hour, that you can maybe increase over time. Ditto if you want to start a diet; depriving yourself of everything from one day to the next makes no sense; start with small sacrifices.
- Healthy eating increases self-control. It may seem strange, but Mens sana in corpore sano also applies to managing emotions. Try to eat little but often: eating often regulates blood sugar levels and improves decision-making ability and concentration.
- A hobby as a relaxation and self-control technique. Whenever we are about to lose patience or succumb to our emotions, we must try to divert the mind towards something else. Activities can help us in this, whatever they are. Find a hobby, a sport, physical activity, dance or gym that can, on the one hand, allow you to release tension and stress and, on the other hand, clear your mind.
- Recognize negative emotions. In all of this, there must be a reflective part that can help us improve our self-control. When we are under stress, later, we have to understand, perhaps recap, what made us lose our balance. A useful tip? Create a detailed list.
- Your surroundings are important. If you’re trying to avoid an urge, you also need to run away from temptation. If you’re in a group that, for example, frequently eats out while you’re trying to stick to a diet, staying away from those times is a good workaround. Not for long, though!
- Mindfulness innovative self-control technique. From this point of view, the East makes a great contribution to the management of emotions. Among these, there is certainly mindfulness meditation of Buddhist origin which takes place by sitting with eyes closed, legs crossed on a cushion or chair, with a straight back focusing attention on the movement of the abdomen and breathing.
- Always remember to reward yourself. If self-control is important, so is self-esteem. Precisely for this reason, therefore, when you reach a goal, even if it is small, you must make yourself happy about it. Always being dissatisfied because maybe you could have done more doesn’t allow you to enjoy your small victories, and this makes you more and more insecure and sad.
- Think positive. He always tries to see the glass as half full and never half empty. It makes no sense to be masochistic, self-flagellation for every failure or even just a priori. Smile at life, and you will see that it will smile at you. It is one of the best techniques to improve self-control and manage them.
