How To Stay Cool: Don’t Lose Your Temper

July Challenge: Stay Cool

I don’t know where you live, but where I live it has been extremely hot. It has been over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks now. So, I thought a challenge about keeping cool would be perfect! 

And no I don’t just mean blasting the AC or going swimming to stay cool. You can do that, but what I mean by staying cool is to not lose your temper, get angry, or let your emotions control your actions. 

During the hot month’s is universally when the most violent crimes take place. This can be due to many things such as more people having time off, increased heart rate, or just being extra irritable because it is hot. Either way, when it’s hot it is hard to keep your cool, literally and figuratively. 

This month we are going to work on not letting our emotions get the best of us. If that means stopping for ice-cream on a hot summer day to keep from being irritable then that’s perfect. 

For now just notice whenever you feel yourself start to get angry and notice what happens in your body, stop and think why you are angry and do your best to stop yourself from letting your emotions control your actions. I will get into more about how to keep your cool later in this post. 

How To Keep Your Cool

Here are a few quick and effective ways to keep yourself from letting your emotions dictate your actions.

  1.  Take a breather: Yes, everyone’s favorite thing to be told. Just take some deep breaths and you’ll calm down. It’s easier said than done. But, more than just deep breaths when you feel your emotions rising up about to take control you should take a break and treat it as if you just finished a long run. Rest, breathe, let your heart rate slow, hydrate, get a snack, and cool your body temperature. By controlling these things it will make your mind cool off and relax the same way your body is. 
  2.  Get some perspective: When you find yourself getting wrapped up in emotions it is helpful to realize how silly and pointless it is. First, letting your emotions get the best of you is almost never going to help you in any situation. Most likely it will just make things worse. You’re better off keeping calm. Second, It is your choice to be hurt about something. You don’t need to feel a particular way about anything. If you don’t feel hurt, then you weren’t, even if others might disagree. Lastly, think about how small and petty your problems or whatever event it is that gets you riled up, really is. You’re one person in a planet with 7+ billion other human beings. Your life is a small time span of maybe 100 years on a planet that is at least thousands of years old. Not to mention you’re on one planet in a galaxy of many planets and stars. That galaxy is one of many in the universe. You’re life and your problems really aren’t that important. Realize this and then you can laugh at the insignificance. 
  3. Recognize your emotions: The final technique for not letting your emotions control you, is to recognize them. When you feel emotions coming up, stop and ask yourself what you are currently feeling. Just recognizing your emotions and calling them out can be enough to help us regain control from our emotions and avoid the actions they might typically lead us towards. 
 
We live in an emotional world. One where people seem to let their emotions lead their lives. People are becoming seemingly less able to control their emotions and are getting triggered more easily. It is important that we choose not to be this way. For he who controls his emotions controls himself. He who lets others control their emotions is easily led.

 

Write down in journal and keep track of how you do this month in regards to not letting your emotions control your actions. If you find it hard to not your emotions dictate what you do at first that’s fine, just keep at it. The more you notice how your emotions affect you the better control you will have over them. 

Good luck on this month’s challenge. Check back later for the review and recap. 

You can check out the June challenge here. 

Eating Healthy