How To Deal With Your Emotions (2023)

Emotions are the biggest part of our lives and these make us feel alive as well. When we feel, we feel all kinds of emotions, the good and the bad. The ability to express joy and feel excitement comes from the emotions that we feel and experience throughout our lives. Although there are some bad and not so pleasant emotions also available that make us feel awful at times such as sadness, grief, loneliness, and anger, these emotions are just as important to experience in life as the good ones.
All humans feel all kinds of emotions with different intensities, some are pretty basic while others make us feel at the worst. Some people know how to deal with their emotions better while others might struggle with it as well. Even if you come in the latter category, you don’t have to feel bad because we all have been at the point in our lives where the emotions were too overwhelming and hard to tackle.
With that being said, learning how to deal with emotions is also something we should do. Because if you are not controlling or healthily dealing with your emotions, it might impact your decision-making, relationships, career, day-to-day life, and self-care. You don’t want to let the emotions take a toll on your emotional and mental health.
Everyone has their way of dealing with their emotions, but some basic tips can help you in dealing with emotions in a better way. We are here to help you know what are the best ways to deal with your emotions and how you can be better at it.
Look at the following list of tips that would help you deal with your emotions better and help you face all kinds of emotions in your day-to-day life.

How To Deal With Your Emotions

1. Take a look at the impact of your emotions

One of the first things that we have to understand about emotions is that not all intense emotions are bad and each one of them would be a great factor in shaping our personality as well.
With that being said, all emotions are there for a reason and we need to understand how these emotions impact our lives. It is very normal or at some times essential to feel the overwhelming emotions in our daily life, whether it’s the happy ones or sad ones.
You will have to acknowledge when the emotions get out of your control and start to impact your life and relationships in a bad way. These are some of the consequences that can lead to conflicts or problems, here are these;
  • relationship or friendship conflict
  • difficulty relating to others
  • trouble at work or school
  • an urge to use substances to help manage your emotions
  • physical or emotional outbursts
When you understand or identify the impact of your intense emotions in your life you will be able to deal with them better and also understand the problem areas.

2. Don’t repress your emotions instead regulate them

If there was a switch to turn our emotions on and off, that might have been a game-changer for most of us, but it never happens like that. No matter what you do, you can’t shut your emotions or turn them off instead, and even if you do that in some way it is going to come back and maybe with much more intensity.
So instead of trying to repress your emotions, you should focus on managing and regulating your emotions in your day-to-day life. Whether you are consciously (suppression) or unconsciously (repression) preventing you from feeling the emotions, it can cause a lot more problems than you realize, such as:
  • anxiety
  • depression
  • sleep issues
  • muscle tension and pain
  • difficulty managing stress
  • substance misuse
That is why the healthy way would be to understand why you are feeling those emotions and how you can handle them, instead of throwing them under the rug. This will only happen when you find a balance in controlling your emotions and healthily regulating them.

3. Identify what you’re feeling

Some of the times we think we are experiencing one emotion but the reality is something different. So you must identify and understand what you are feeling instead of outbursts of emotions. Many emotions come in pairs or seem to be different from what you are feeling.
We can cry when we are angry and we can also get very angry when we are grieving or going through something that breaks us. So before you act on your emotions, it is always good to take a couple of minutes to ask yourself these questions;
  • What am I feeling?
  • Why am I feeling like this or what caused these feelings?
  • Does the situation have a different explanation that might make sense?
  • What do I want to do about these feelings?
  • Is there a better way of coping with them?
These questions would certainly help you find a better explanation of what you are feeling and why you are feeling this way. This will also help you to cope with your emotions in a better way.

4. Accept your emotions

This is one of the crucial parts of dealing with your emotions. Once you have found out the cause and problems that are making you feel this way, you need to accept all of your emotions without questioning or trying to suppress them. Acceptance is the first step to tackling emotions as it is always better to feel what you are feeling.
When you allow yourself to feel your emotions to the fullest, this gives your feelings some validation which is a better way to deal with all kinds of emotions. On the other hand, if you suppress your emotions by saying just calm down, it’s not a big deal, and so on, this generates an invalidating and self-gaslighting of your emotions which will again give birth to new intense emotions like anxiety, stress, or depression.
By accepting your emotions, you will allow yourself to express yourself better and get more comfortable with your emotions as well. This will help you to cope with your emotions as well.

5. Keep a mood journal

Writing is one of the best ways you can handle your emotions and express them. A lot of psychologists and psychiatrists tell their clients to write down what they are feeling because it helps a lot. Writing down your emotions and how they are triggered can help you find the pattern and will help you find the root cause of those emotions as well.
You would be able to reflect on your emotions more deeply when you see them on paper. This will help you find the triggers so you can deal with them better.
People are advised to write a journal daily as it helps with so many things and makes it easier to express ourselves as well.

6. Do breathing exercises

If you can control your breathing while feeling intense emotions then you can regulate your emotions way better. Our breathing pattern is one of the most important factors in how we feel and express ourselves. If you are too happy, excited or angry, or anxious, your breathing pattern will change and you might feel uncomfortable and unable to speak or breathe.
So it is important to take a long and deep breath whenever you are feeling intense emotions. This will help you calm down and give you time to reflect on your emotions better.
The best way would be to breathe slowly or hold your breath for a while and then let it go. This would certainly help you to calm yourself down when feeling intense or overwhelming emotions.

7. Be aware of your surroundings

This is something we all lose track of when we are facing an overwhelming flow of emotions. Although you may not have to control yourself when you are at home or surrounded by your loved ones, such as sobbing uncontrollably when you have lost someone, kicking something, punching the pillow, or just screaming at your pillow when you feel angry.
But make sure to control yourself when you are in public and especially when you are at your workplace. This may not be the best time or place to express your emotions as you can lose your job or reputation (when getting angry over something) or say awful things to your partner or friends. Take a few minutes and think about what you are about to say and if it would be appropriate.

8. Give yourself some space

You must spend some time with yourself while experiencing intense emotions. It is important that you take a walk, watch a film, spend some time with a pet, or anything you can do to just give yourself some space and take some time off from feeling these things.
This will help you to understand what you are feeling and if you are being reasonable before you take some steps to tackle your emotions. Leaving a triggering situation or taking some mental space is always helpful in dealing with your emotions. At this time, you can do any activity or just sit in nature to feel what you are feeling or just take a short break from your feelings to understand and reflect on the better.

9. Meditation

Meditation is the key to handling your emotions in the best way possible and allowing yourself to cope with your emotions in the most healthy way. Practicing meditation daily can help you a lot to handle the day-to-day life and emotions that you feel. It also calms our body, mind, and soul to help us handle work and life stress.

10. Reduce stress in your life

Our life is chaotic and full of stress, so it is important that include a healthy lifestyle routine to at least reduce the unnecessary stress from life because eliminating the stress is impossible.
Here are some of the ways that can reduce stress in our daily lives;
  • Get enough sleep
  • Practice yoga, meditation, or any other physical exercise or activity daily
  • Take some time off from work and spend some quality time with your friends and yourself
  • Spend some time in nature
  • Find times for your hobbies and fun activities

Conclusion

So these are some of the best ways to deal with your emotions. These are suggested and recommended by some of the experts who have specialized in human emotions. We have selected the basic tips and ways to get your emotions under control or let them out in a healthy way, you can easily find one that suits you the best.
That would be all for now and we hope our article was helpful for you and you got everything you have been looking for. Thank you.