Emotional Mastery (Ebook & Audiobook)
As human beings, we are well acquainted with emotions and emotional responses. We all feel happiness and joy when positive events occur in our lives. Alternatively, we feel sadness and fear with equal strength when negative events occur. Our emotional responses to life can guide us through rough water and into safe harbors. They give us a foundational mental platform that can provide stability in what can sometimes be a chaotic world. In many ways, our emotions are an important component in each of our individual definitions of humanity.
While emotions are a part of what makes us human, they also have the ability to tear the fabric of that humanity apart. Anger and fear, shame and disgust have caused many, if not all, of the violence that seems to be a part and parcel of our species behavioral repertoire. War, genocide and social abuse of all kinds stem from the wellspring of our darker emotions. By the same token, negative emotions in our own personal lives can wreak havoc and cause damage and destruction that, in its way, is just as terrible.
How can a mental process that produces such connectivity and defines our better natures also allow us to commit acts that are, in some sense, deeply inhuman? That is the key question that we will try to answer within these pages.
This is a book about emotional mastery. Why mastery? Well, very often, the negative consequences of uncontrolled emotional lability can have dire effects on how a person is able to live their life. We are all very aware of how a physical handicap may limit a person’s potential. In a similar vein, an emotional handicap can be equally crippling. Inappropriate or overly inordinate emotional responses can delimit or end social and professional opportunities and relationships. These setbacks can then trigger a set of even more outrageous responses. In the resulting turmoil, the individual suffering from these uncontrolled emotional responses is left reeling and seething. Unable to deal with the flood of emotions,
they can only continue to attempt to survive what can be likened to a veritable emotional tsunami. This is where emotional mastery comes in. When a person learns to temper, and control their emotional response to the situations that occur in life, they typically become more confident and more self-assured. This, in turn, leads to not only to greater levels of success, it also results in an even greater ability to experience measured responses to any event that may occur.
A person with emotional mastery is like a well-trimmed, well-ballasted boat. The sea may become rough and the course difficult, but the person who has command of their emotional responses makes headway nonetheless. It is this skill that we will attempt to convey to the reader in the text that follows.
We will begin by taking a look at emotions. We will examine what they are and what purpose they serve. By looking at the specific steps that occur in an emotional response, we will begin to decode the emotions and discover exactly how and why they can have such an extraordinarily strong effect on what we do and say.
Next, we will take a close look at the common positive emotions. We’ll examine happiness, excitement, pride, satisfaction, and amusement. We’ll look at what they mean, their importance and, most importantly, how to tap into these positive emotions more regularly.
Finally, we’ll turn our attention to common negative emotions. We’ll look in turn at fear, disgust, anger, sadness, and shame. We’ll look at their causes, their negative effects and we’ll give you some tips on how to deal with them.
There is no need to be controlled by your emotional responses to life’s ups and downs. There is no need to let anger destroy relationships and opportunities. There is no need to let fear dictate what you can and cannot do in life. You can master these negative emotional states and reduce their impact. Likewise, you can also channel the energy that positive emotions bring into your life, using that energy to move farther and higher than you previously believed possible. Emotional responses no longer have to be a rollercoaster ride, full of peaks and valleys. You can exist in a more stable and steady emotional state, living your life at a higher level without the risk of dark clouds on the horizon. Let’s take a look at how the process works.