Emotional self-control is bodymind mastery, so you must manipulate both your body and mind to generate an emotion at will. A) Bodily Emotion Generation To self-generate an emotion, you must act as if you were feeling the emotion already, which means (1) to imitate the emotion's physiological profile, (2) to change your body language, and (3) to alter your goal-oriented behavior. 1) Mimic the Emotion's Physiological Profile An emotion's physiological profile is either agitated (sympathetic) … [Read more...]
8 Reasons Why People Regulate Their Emotions
Emotions rule our lives. Whether we want it or not, emotions color our thoughts and guide all of our actions. But since we have a prefrontal cortex and the power of will, we have the ability to regulate our emotions and thus to rule ourselves. Whenever we do so, we have at least one psychological motive: a will, an objective, a specific outcome we desire, a reason why. But are we always aware of our motives? Are you always aware of when, how, and why you are exercising emotional … [Read more...]
Practice Mindful Gestures of Gratitude
A substantial part of my True Will is to live my life fully, mind-fully, and one way I exercise my mindfulness skills in daily life is by practicing little rites of gratitude. In particular, I express gratitude by bowing down and shaking hands. When I go for a walk in the woods, I bow to the woods before I enter. By bowing to the woods, I thank the trees, the birds, the forester, the wind, and even the insects, those fucking microbeasts. I thank them for their being, their liveliness, the joy … [Read more...]
How Traveling Teaches You to Let Go Gratefully
Three weeks ago, I spontaneously decided to travel to Spain. With no goal, no plan, no intentions in mind, I took a flight to Barcelona. Just to see what's up. There was nothing specific I wanted to see. I only wanted to see what would happen if I don't work for a few days and just walk around leisurely in a foreign city. Here is what I learned from this rewarding experience and what you, too, can learn from traveling alone. Evanescence was the major lesson, because the moments you … [Read more...]
Is Suppressing Emotions Bad For You? (Jocko Willink Vs. Science)
Should a man suppress his emotions? More precisely, should he contract his muscles (facial, vocal, etc.) to avoid displaying an acute emotion he has judged as bad in order not to look hurt, angry, sad, afraid, excited, exhausted, intimidated, disdainful, etc.? Science Vs. Experience According to the scientific literature, emotion suppression is a relatively maladaptive emotion regulation strategy. Its habitual use is linked to anxiety and depression (Schäfer et al., 2017) and impairs … [Read more...]