How To Command And Master Your Emotions
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Do we really need to control or command our emotions? Yes, we command our emotions so we can become better and more mature persons.

They say emotions should be released. Restraining them may eventually be bad for our health. This is where we see the difference between control and command. The first is restraint or suppressed, while the other is released in a constructive manner. At best, a controlled emotion is partially released, redirected, or delayed. Thus, we see that commanding an emotion is often better than controlling it.

When an emotion, especially a negative one, is merely partially released, redirected, or delayed, it just takes on other forms. Its essence remains. However, commanding emotions often bring out the best in us.

Let us examine the various ways of releasing negative emotions.

PARTIALLY RELEASED

When its bearer entertains an emotion, it is useless to release it partially. To get rid of the emotion, it must be 100 percent in, 100 percent out. This is not to say, though, that 100 percent out is good for your health. When you allow the entry of an emotion, the break or opening will allow the same emotion, (or several others) to enter you again. Always having negative emotions will wreck your personality terribly. Soon, they may affect your health.

A partially released negative emotion will create harmful emotional eruptions inside you (making you a difficult person wherever you are). It could also find release somewhere else (to another person or family member), extending the damage further.

REDIRECTED

This is another form (and a worse one) of a partially released emotion. This produces unfairness and injustices to other people who you see have less power. You may find it easy to take “vengeance” on them.

For instance, your boss has scolded you. Being his subordinate prevents you from retaliating. When you get home, you may tend to release your anger on your house helps, children, or spouse.

DELAYED RELEASE

This is mostly responsible for a sudden burst of an accumulated emotion (anger for instance). You may get very angry over a seemingly trivial or unimportant problem.

For instance, a teacher who cannot vent her anger on her naughty pupils for the whole day (or days) may become so touchy as to be so fiercely angered by a mere harmless joke.

Here we see why controlling an emotion damages our health and well-being in the long run. The appropriate option is to command a right emotion to suit or neutralize a threatening one.

Let’s go back to the slapping attack on your cheek. The usual reaction to pain is to get hurt or give in to the stimulus. The mind has gotten used to this response. If unchallenged, it will just give way to the effect that is accepted by the norm. The norm is what most people expect of you. Thus, when slapped on the face, people expect you to get angry. Now, if you laugh instead, you break the norm.

There can be a radical change on how you would react to a stimulus. Your brain can take charge and command your emotions to manifest a positive reaction. Thus, instead of being angry for being slapped on the face, you can decide to just take everything in stride. Just forgive the offender, forget everything, and then go on enjoying life. The saying that, “When slapped on your right cheek, offer the other also,” is admissible when you take on such a radical attitude.

In commanding your emotions, you don’t restrain them. You release them. The difference is that you take charge in releasing the RIGHT kind of emotion. This is with the end view of getting the most out of the situation. This will make you a better person in the end.

Releasing anger (especially full blast) not only damages your health, but also your well-being. You will have the same result if you restrain the emotion. Anger, released or retrained, is a major distress in your body. It triggers serious illnesses later. Releasing negative emotions has not yet been proven to do your health any good. However, altering your reaction from a negative feedback to a positive one has been proven to release stress.

Doing it sincerely makes everything work for your overall wellness.

The emotional pain may be neutralized by a radical attitude change, but how about the physical injury? In the slapping incident we discussed earlier, the physical pain may be ignored. But what if it’s a full fist blow to your face?

Commanding your emotions is a mere vehicle to another wonderful aspect of real self-mastery: commanding pain to go away. This, in turn, is just another vehicle to the ultimate goal of real self-mastery: commanding illnesses to go away.

WARNING: The advice of a competent medical professional should always be sought when you’re experiencing pain or discomfort.

Commanding your emotions is just a means to an end. When you have mastered this, you are well on your way to commanding pain to scram. You may also choose to command your body to ignore and eliminate pain.

Are any of the above really possible? Serious athletes achieve a certain measure of this virtue. They are known to ignore pain and difficulty. They overcome perceived physical limits. They do it slowly, conquering higher performance levels inch-by-inch. It is mind-over-matter at work. What the mind imagines, the body makes it happen.

Professional boxers and full-contact martial artists are known to take in severe punishments. They are taught to endure pain, hang on, and even prevail. The same goes with those training in the special forces of the police or army. They are taught to endure, and even ignore, pain. These are examples that prove the mind can command not only the emotions but also the body.

Strong mind conquers the will. The will and the mind conquer the emotions.

It can also work vice versa. The strong mind can conquer the emotions. Together, the mind and the emotions can conquer the will.