Unchecked negative emotions can alter or destroy relationships forever. The most destructive and costly type of negative emotional outburst is anger. Allowing your anger to erupt hurts those closest to you – those who care about you the most and who you need the most.
No one is perfect and people often disappoint us. Their behavior, their choices and their mistakes affect those closest to them. Responding with anger at these failings only serves to distance those closest to us. Don’t allow you anger to spontaneously erupt. Make a habit of deferring any emotional reaction to a latter time. Sleep on your anger. Deal with the failing after sleep. Sleep has a way of calming the amygdala, the portion of the brain that regulates many of our emotions. Sleep diffuses anger and re-engages the pre-frontal cortex, our executive command and control center. We want our pre-frontal cortex to deal with the failing, not our amygdala. Our amygdala will only get us in trouble.
The next time you are face to face with any potential emotional uprising, defer any response until you have had time to sleep. Your reaction, after sleep, will be controlled by your conscious, analytical brain (the pre-frontal cortex) rather than your emotional brain (amygdala). A well-thought out response will prevent you from damaging or destroying the relationships that are most important to you – those you love and care about the most.
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