Watching your Emotions.

Focus the attention mainly to the breath and sensory experiences; in addition, note your emotional experiences.

- Whenever a particular feeling comes up, mentally note it; as "liking", "dis-liking", "anger", "sad", "fear", "resentment", "anxiety", "guilt" etc. and let it go
- Do not get involved with the emotions, only note them and return to awareness of the breath.


Simple Steps to Controlling your Emotions

Being able to control your emotions is a huge step towards unlimited happiness. For small things in your life, you will be able to use the following method to instantly change your thoughts and viewpoints. For bigger issues it might take more time.

1. Be Present

Presence is a beautiful thing, it is the realization that now is all there ever is. It is also described as living consciously, being aware of your emotions and reactions to things as they arise. One great way to start becoming more present is through the use of meditation and I also recommend trying to be aware of being aware as often as possible.

For example, if you are about to go through a traffic light and it turns red so you have to stop, it’s easy to become a little angry or annoyed. The more present you can be (aware the red light has made you angry), the more you can succeed at the next step. There are other benefits to presence in that you are also more aware and alert to what is going on without a mind full of thoughts.

2. Watch the Emotion

As soon as you are present in a situation, that is to say watching the thoughts that come into your mind -Â observe them. If you feel anger at a traffic light then watch that anger. As soon as you watch the emotion, you separate yourself from it, therefore it can’t take over you and quickly disappears.

One good example from the book the Power of Now (by Eckhart) goes along the following lines:

Listen when a car alarm goes off outside. It keeps going and the noise becomes very annoying. The more you focus on it the louder the sound becomes and the more annoying it gets. However, if you just listen to it, and watch the emotions that arise, then a miraculous thing will happen.

You will start to notice the alarm doesn’t really annoy you any more, you may start laughing and actually find it funny.

This is a great example and one that allowed me to understand presence and watching your emotions more closely. I’ve started doing this more in everyday life, for instance, when someone sitting near me at work has music on too loud, I find myself getting annoyed quickly. As soon as I am aware I’m feeling the emotion, it quickly disappears and I no longer feel annoyed.

3. Some people enjoy Anger

It might seem ludicrous (because it is), but there are a lot of people who simply enjoy being angry. The reason for this is that to them, it is better to have a negative emotion than it is to have no emotion and be bored. Of course, they aren’t aware of this consciously but as soon as you are aware of it you will start to see people in everyday life who just love anger / drama.


4. Make your Choice

Now that you see it is possible to be truly present, observe your emotions and control them - which path are you going to take? You have the choice to look at any situation positively or negatively.
Are you going to let the ego’s desire for pain and drama creep into all areas of your life or are you going to make the decision to disconnect from your negative emotions and experience true, unlimited happiness?

The choice is yours

[source]