If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money.
-Warren Buffett
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Tag: control
At what point is it okay to to let loose, be angry and cuss someone out up one side and down the other?
If some something sets me off in the morning do I let it impact my whole day? Should I?
My unscientific hunch is it’s not healthy to let negative emotions impact our whole day. If we are angry in the morning and that anger becomes our traveling companion for the rest of the day, chances are we won’t be very productive
We may lose respect or even a few friends or clients if we can’t rein it in.
So how do we leave the negative thoughts or feelings behind?
Here are some things I do:
- Exercise – whether it’s a trip to the gym, a brisk walk outside or even some airsquats or push-ups, it helps
- Take a cold shower or bath. It sounds crazy but you’ll definitely have a change of attitude when you are finished
- List things you are grateful for – you can’t be angry and grateful at the same time
- Pray or meditate – spend time just quieting your mind – take deep steady breaths.
- Write down what happened to get it out of your head. Looking at things on paper gives us a different perspective and helps us detach in a healthy way from our negative thoughts and emotions
- Go out of your way to be kind to the next person you come across
Letting Go: The Need for Control
Control
Sometimes I feel like I am in control and other times not so much.
The times I feel out of control are often the times I feel the need to control things the most.
Conversely, the times I feel most in control are often the times I am most free from a need to control anything.
Thus, if you try letting go of the need for control, you may find yourself more free of control (whether it is the need to control something or something that is controlling you).
Giving up Control
The best decision I ever made was to give up control over my life to God, but like Jacob, I am constantly trying to wrestle it back. The wonderful thing is that God gives me grace to wrestle with this issue of control, and little by little by little I begin to grasp what he meant when he said:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
I don’t think Christ was talking about physical labor or work, but rather the labor of our spirit’s attempt to be in control of our lives apart from God.
Letting Go of Control is not Abandoning all Control
Of course I am not saying to abandon all control and thus remain children, “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes,” but rather let go of our need to control our lives and “speaking the truth in love…grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
We can only do this if we learn to let go. And it’s okay to wrestle a bit, just keep in mind with whom you are wrestling.